UKZN Academics Participate in Teaching Advancements at Universities Programme

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Dr Sharmla Rama of the College of Humanities, Professor Shenuka Singh of the College of Health Sciences and Dr Annah Bengesai of the College of Law and Management Studies recently participated in the fourth cohort of the Teaching Advancements at Universities (TAU4) Fellowship Programme.

The first session of TAU4 was held at the Birchwood Hotel, Gauteng, where Singh is also a TAU4 elected representative to the TAU Programme Committee.

The TAU Fellowship Programme is a nationwide intervention aimed at advancing teaching quality and the professionalisation of teaching and learning in the public Higher Education sphere. TAU is included as a component in the Department of Higher Education and Training’s (DHET) National Framework for Advancing Academics as University Teachers and is funded as a collaborative project through the university capacity development programme (UCDP).

The TAU programme is constructed around three themes: Teaching Engagement and Responsiveness; Scholarship of Teaching and Learning; and Contributing to Change in your Context.

A TAU participant will be awarded the title of TAU Fellow upon completion of a research project aimed at allowing TAU participants to develop their capabilities to engage in, reflect on, and insert themselves as change agents (individually and collectively) in building a socially-just Higher Education system.

Rama’s project focuses on Academic Monitoring and Support Staffs’ Reflections on their Challenges and Experiences in (Re)Negotiating and (Re)Navigating their Intersectional Identities and Lived Realities, Singh’s project is entitled: Technology-Assisted Engagement for Academic Success and Holistic Student Wellness in Health Sciences, while Bengesai’s project focuses on The Impact of AMS Interventions on Student Persistence at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Words: Melissa Mungroo

Photograph: Supplied