UCT Libraries

New Academics Transitioning into Higher Education

2024-10-24T12:35:34+02:00

The New Academics Transitioning into Higher Education Project, known as NATHEP, is part of a national collaborative project in Higher Education (HE), focused on the professional development of academic staff developers who are involved in the induction programmes of new academics transitioning into HE. Using a cascading model of staff development, NATHEP explored structural and cultural opportunities and constraints that inhibited or promoted the emergence of critical induction programmes to respond to new academics’ needs and to the needs of students. Given the complexity and contested nature of the current higher education landscape (UCDP, 2018), new academics face numerous challenges as they embed themselves in disciplinary and institutional contexts. With systemic conditions not being conducive to critical agency and social justice, current induction practices for new academics are inadequate to the task of transformation in higher education (Behari-Leak, 2015), making new academics especially vulnerable (Behari-Leak, 2017).

NATHEP focused on developing a national orientation to induction practices and principles across the sector. Twenty academic staff developers from 10 universities were supported to initiate and convene well-theorised and conceptualised induction programmes in their institutional contexts, to address historical and systemic challenges and to contribute to the transformation of higher education. Using Roy Bhaskar’s critical realism as meta-theoretical framing and Margaret Archer’s social realist theory, this book offers a theorised account of how academic staff developers, in devising models of induction practice for new academics at their universities, engaged with enabling and constraining conditions at institutional, faculty, departmental and university classroom levels. Through an analysis of institutional case studies, this project explores a range of agential choices exercised by staff developers to conceptualise and contextualise induction programmes, relative to how they, as well as their new academics, mediate contested spaces. A nuanced social and critical account of the material, ideational and agential conditions in HE shows that the courses of action taken by new academics are driven through their concerns, commitments and projects in higher education. A further aim of this project was to see if academic staff developers would be driven by corresponding but different concerns and commitments.

Drawing on Margaret Archer’s social realism and Bhaskar’s critical realism, the Seven Scalar Being (2010) was used as a heuristic for both the methodological and pedagogical approach taken. Through this ontological laminar, the project explored and analysed what critical professional development looks like (Kohli et al, 2015) across seven levels of reality. In addition to working from the premise that the positive exercise of agency is a marked feature of new participants in HE despite contextual challenges (Leibowitz, et.al., 2016), NATHEP also explored, if at a conceptual level, the structural and cultural contexts might act as a trigger or dampener for academic staff developers’ agency. Importantly, we needed to know the extent to which contexts would have immediate implications for ways in which professional and academic development programmes are conceptualised and implemented. It was hoped that with an alternative theorisation and creation of conducive conditions for the uptake of critical agency, in both disciplinary and departmental programmes, staff developers would create emergent induction programmes for new academics, that are contextualised, sensitised, responsive and informed.

To this end, the creation of a framework to infuse criticality into professional development practices was a highlight of NATHEP’s scholarly work. The CRiTiCAL framework is offered here as the project’s contribution to knowledge generation. Via this heuristic, which was used to embed relevant and contextual practices and values into otherwise generic induction, NATHEP was able to reorientate staff developers and their institutions to their ethical obligation to introduce newcomers to the sector and their institutions in ways that could really help them to “hit the ground running”. Through a collaborative, consultative and inclusive methodology, and based on a cascading model (discussed later) of staff development, NATHEP prepared staff development practitioners to exercise their agency by engaging with knowledge in relevant and generative ways and to create inclusive and participatory teaching and learning experiences that are responsive to institutional, regional and national challenges.

Making/Doing/Thinking

2024-09-27T20:54:39+02:00

In recent decades scholars globally have advocated for artistic practice or performance as research (PaR) in higher education institutions as a valuable and innovative way of developing knowledge and knowledge paradigms. PaR has been championed for extending what we know and how we come to learn about it in ways that are embodied, processual and integrate creative and intellectual projects and practices in productive ways. Much of the published discussion about PaR takes the form of overarching philosophies and less attention has been given to the granular processes through which individual PaR projects are realised. Each PaR process is unique to the researcher, their particular artistic practice and their research question. Each successful PaR process is also fundamentally rigorous in its research design. This handbook seeks to give insights into the bespoke sets of methods researchers develop to rigorously support their overallmethodology of PaR – a ‘how-to’ in support of the philosophy of PaR.

The book has been made possible by grant funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for the Reimagining Tragedy in Africa and the Global South (ReTAGS) project (2019-2024), based in the University of Cape Town’s Centre for Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies. ReTAGS has used PaR as its foundational methodology and seeks to promote PaR in the work of African and global South scholars. Part I of the handbook reproduces Mark Fleishman’s writing on PaR, giving a sense of the key philosophical concerns in this research approach. Part II offers individually authored chapters by scholars who have come through postgraduate programmes at the Centre for Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies (formerly UCT’s Drama Department). The handbook offers inspirations and guiding compasses to scholars embarking on their own, unique PaR journeys.

Understanding Pain

2024-07-26T12:15:42+02:00

"Understanding Pain: Unravelling the Physiology, Assessment, and Management of Pain through South African Stories" integrates essential evidence-based knowledge of pain with contextual and poignant narratives from South Africans who have experienced pain firsthand. Co-authored by individuals with lived experiences of pain and healthcare professionals, this comprehensive textbook places the perspective of the person who has suffered pain at its core, enriching the exploration of pain physiology, assessment techniques, and therapeutic strategies. By intertwining scientific rigor with authentic South African stories, the book offers a unique perspective that enhances understanding and empathy in pain management. Essential reading for healthcare professionals and students—including doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, psychologists, social workers, and paramedics—the text illuminates the complex landscape of pain, fostering compassionate and effective care tailored to diverse African cultural and clinical contexts.

Disability Studies in Inclusive Education

2024-01-30T14:22:58+02:00

This innovative textbook, Disability Studies in Inclusive Education, aims to boost teachers' confidence in mainstream and special schools, enabling them to effectively engage with learners with disabilities in the classroom and address their diverse learning needs. It originates in the Disability Studies in Education (DSE) course initiated in 2017 in the Division of Disability Studies at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and was developed by the Including Disability in Education in Africa (IDEA) research unit. The DSE course development process prioritised inclusivity and active involvement from academics, teachers, parents, persons with disabilities, and community stakeholders, including NGOs. Through a consultative and co-design process, the course convenors brought together a diverse range of skills and expertise from scholars in Disability Studies and specialist educators proficient in reasonable accommodation for meeting the learning needs of learners with disabilities. This textbook is an outcome of that collaborative process.

In the context of SDG4, which promotes quality, inclusive education for all, the textbook explores the challenges of equitable education through the lens of Disability Studies in education. The authors discuss the impact of specific impairments on individuals and their learning, along with strategies for addressing these challenges through an enabling learning environment, incorporating curriculum adaptation and reasonable accommodation for learners with disabilities. The textbook provides a foundational understanding of Disability Studies and its application in inclusive education. Relevant policy is examined globally, with a focus on low- and middle-income countries from a decolonial perspective.

Adopting the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework, the textbook provides a systematic approach to maximise flexibility in the curriculum, allowing all learners to flourish by choosing learning pathways that best suit them, to achieve their goals. The authors recognise that UDL alone is insufficient for ensuring full participation of learners with disabilities and emphasise the importance of reasonable accommodations tailored to the specific needs of learners with impairments as well as the importance of engaging families and communities in circles of care to support the learner.

The Disability Studies in Inclusive Education textbook serves as a valuable resource for learners, teachers and teacher educators, either as part of a formal course or independently as needed. The design of the textbook adheres to UDL principles, with a strong focus on accessibility and interactive engagement, featuring links to video, further reading and other multimedia. Published under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, this work can be freely hosted, reused, adapted, or translated by educators and learners in other contexts, on condition that proper attribution is given to the authors.

This textbook was developed and published by the IDEA research unit in collaboration with the Digital Open Textbooks for Development initiative in the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching at UCT.

Creativity Explained

2023-01-31T14:39:03+02:00

Creativity and imagination are key catalysts to unlocking potential in the 21st century. While those in business and civil society are generally aware of the challenges of the modern age, few seem able to understand or apply the creativity necessary to meet them. Creativity Explained suggests that the most direct route to imaginative insight lies in understanding how genuinely creative people develop their big ideas. Focusing on the lives of contemporary writers, musicians and artists, David Priilaid examines the elements of the creative process to provide readers with a better appreciation of creativity in practice. Through exploring the creative lives of figures such as Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, Bill Evans, Jackson Pollock, J.K. Rowling and the iconic Steve Jobs, Priilaid shows how artists are typically outsiders, marked variously by the extent of their suffering, resilience and love for the work they do. Creativity Explained offers an insightful overview of the imaginative mindset and disciplines crucial to the formulation of great ideas.

More than Learning: Entrepreneurship at UCT

2023-01-25T10:05:40+02:00

This book provides a snapshot of the entrepreneurship eco-system at the University of Cape Town (UCT) at a particular point in time. It makes evident that entrepreneurship has been actively nurtured over many years in a wide variety of initiatives within UCT. This includes undergraduate course-based content across a range of faculties on upper and middle campus, post-graduate degrees focusing on nurturing and developing entrepreneurs, the world-class UCT Graduate School of Business, the exciting new Hasso Plattner Design-Thinking School and the Solution Space, UCT’s satellite campus, based in Philippi. The book makes space for a variety of voices from different contexts across the institution. It celebrates the successes and vision of individuals and initiatives over time, recognising the value of a range of stakeholders within a university ecosystem, and of the value of an institutional culture that encourages entrepreneurship.

The role of the university has shifted significantly , impacted by public demands for access, social justice and transformation in the higher education sphere. Learning is recognised as more than a commodity to be traded for job security. It incorporates the knowledge that is created, accessed and passed on; the processes that are modelled; the skills, attitudes and values that make up the person and the communities they are part of.

Entrepreneurship at UCT is shown to be a constructive response to student learning within the university – a response requiring a particular mindset and agency to create something new rather than simply to acquire or circulate that which is already in existence. The practice of entrepreneurship at UCT recognises learning as a dynamic process, building value beyond what is known. It is specific to a context and flourishes where communities are focused on building value within the context of South Africa and the continent.

Appendicitis & Appendectomy

2022-08-12T14:00:52+02:00

Division of Paediatric Surgery, at the University of Cape Town and Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital has been in the forefront of modern surgical training by introduction of online training and surgical skills training. The dramatised teaching on surgical conditions is a novel way of teaching rich surgical knowledge through the journey of a patient with a surgical condition from admission to discharge.

This will be beneficial to both undergraduate and postgraduate students and will allow them to experience real life like interactions between patients and trainees as well as trainees and teachers.

The filming of the video took place at the surgical skills training centre located at the Institute of Child Health building, Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital.

This medical video uses, in the main, actors and medically trained personnel. There are no violations with regard to ethics and such was cleared before and post the recording of the film.

The Division would like to acknowledge the Foxwood TV, its producers, directors, and filming crew for their highly professional approach filming a medical training video.

We would like to thank all the Divisional staff for their contributions to the preparation of manuscript, and performance in the video. We also would like to thank Karl Storz Endoscopy for their sponsorship of the episode.

Please note that closed captions are available in the videos.

Paeds in a pinch

2022-07-06T10:16:13+02:00

A practical paediatric guide for students, by students with a specialist review.

Medical Devices Innovation for Africa

2022-02-25T15:37:53+02:00

Medical device engineering and innovation are en route to being the most sophisticated and celebrated discipline in future!

This book is the proceedings from the MediVentors Consortium funded by the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services SETA (MerSETA) and hosted by the University of Cape Town's Division of Biomedical Engineering within the Department of Human Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences.

Over 30 students from 4 universities (UCT, CPUT, UKZN and WITS) participated and were trained in this Integrated Skills Development Programme (ISDP) around medical device industrialisation. This book compilation summarises key outcomes from select innovations from our future medical device manufacturing industry leaders.

Come, let us start a new industrial revolution in the Medical Device Industry.

UCT Open Textbook Journeys

2021-11-26T14:08:47+02:00

The UCT Open Textbook Journeys monograph tells the stories of 11 academics at the University of Cape Town who embarked on open textbook development initiatives in order to provide their students with more accessible and locally relevant learning materials. Produced by the Digital Open Textbooks for Development (DOT4D) initiative, the monograph contributes towards a better understanding of open textbook production by providing details related to authors’ processes and their reflections on their work. The collection aims to provide rich anecdotal evidence about the factors driving open textbook activity and shed light on how to go about conceptualising and producing open textbooks, and to aid the articulation of emerging open textbook production models that advance social justice in higher education.

Orthopaedics for Primary Health Care

2021-07-30T11:14:12+02:00

Most patients with orthopaedic pathology in low- to middle-income countries are treated by non-specialists. The contents of this book is informed by a modified Delphi consensus study with experts from Africa, Europe, and North America, who provided guidance on prioritising knowledge topics, skills and cases concerning orthopaedic trauma and infection. The work is produced under the auspices of the Learning Innovation via Orthopaedic Network (LION) initiative, which aims to improve learning and teaching in Orthopaedics in Southern Africa. The book is therefore built on transformation through development of a student-centred curriculum and content. The authors are mostly orthopaedic surgeons and trainees in Southern Africa who have experience with local orthopaedic pathology and treatment modalities, as well as in medical education of undergraduate students and primary care physicians.

Science, Technology & Innovation and Intellectual Property

2021-03-17T12:37:38+02:00

2020 was an eventful year for the whole world, as a public health and economic crisis raged, bringing to the fore the perennial challenge of how to craft and use Intellectual Property (IP) institutions, law, policies and practices, collectively ‘IP frameworks’ to add to efforts to achieve sustainable development, and to consider recovery paths for economies. This coincided with intensified efforts to boost intra-African trade and enhance regional integration through the Agreement on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which has been ratified at the fastest rate, to date, of any African Union (AU) instrument. The US entered into negotiations for a bilateral FTA with Kenya, which, if successful, would be the first in Southern Africa and the first since the coming into force of the AfCFTA Agreement.

This book engages with this challenge in its six chapters. The introductory Chapter One includes a brief overview of the AU, its member states, its institutions and legal norms to emphasise both the context and the diversity of the continent. It introduces and links STI and IP within a knowledge governance context as the analytical lens through which the book’s further discussions are framed. The international and African development agendas are also explained and distinguished from each other to foreground the following chapters.

Chapter Two considers the global IP framework with an account of minimum standards in international agreements. Chapter Three turns to the African continent and provides a commentary on national and regional IP frameworks, as contrasted with the global framework. It considers plurilateral and bilateral agreements including the possibilities and significance of the US-Kenya FTA. It reprises the IP instruments of the regional IP organisations and the Regional Economic Communities. Chapter Four considers STI and sustainable development, paying specific attention to the creation of an enabling environment for STI and also to how STI policies interface with IP. Chapter Five reiterates the trade and sustainable development context of IP as the foundation to a consideration of examples of how openness is being leveraged to meet current developmental challenges through STI on the continent. It spotlights some entries at the COVID-19 Innovation Challenge held during the Africa Innovation and Investment Forum 2020 together with the continent’s commitment to Open Science. Against the background of the preceding chapters, Chapter Six discusses the continental IP institutional reform and policy rejuvenation that would come from the operationalisation of PAIPO and the conclusion of the AfCFTA IP Protocol. It concludes with some policy legislative implications for IP and STI at continental level, that ought to be borne in mind as states calibrate their IP frameworks.

Published date of the Open Access version: March 2021

Suggested Citation:
Ncube, C. B. 2021. Science, technology & innovation and intellectual property: leveraging openness for sustainable development in Africa. Cape Town: Juta. DOI: 10.15641/1-48513-776-4.

2020: A Century of Chemical Engineering at UCT

2021-02-24T09:30:08+02:00

UCT Chemical Engineering marked its 100th anniversary in 2020, with the first explicit curriculum for Chemical Engineering appearing in UCT’s Engineering Faculty prospectus in 1920. The department's existence spans a century of massive transition in South Africa and in the profession. We began during an era when political and social ideology denied access to tertiary education for the majority of its population. Today we find ourselves in a country with a multicultural democracy that competes in the global economy. In celebration of this milestone, we have produced a centenary publication that captures our remarkable story for posterity.

Marketing to South African Consumers

2021-03-23T11:40:56+02:00

Marketing to South African Consumers provides core introductory marketing theory underpinned by a contemporary and localised South African perspective. South Africa has a unique hybrid economy with strong formal and informal economies co-existing in a deeply unequal society. This textbook maintains a classic view of marketing theory, but is written with a focus on consumer behaviour. It provides a unique contribution to the marketing textbook landscape, in that it is written by marketing academics, professionals and students, and is focused on making local context a central reference rather than a peripheral addition. The textbook is relevant to any marketer or business owner who would like to gain more understanding of marketing in general and South African consumers in particular.

Constitutional Law for Students

2020-12-14T15:15:28+02:00

Constitutional Law for Students is a textbook for students by students, to help navigate the complex world of Constitutional Law in South Africa. Constitutional Law is one of the most challenging courses in the LLB programme. This book aims to clarify concepts and increase understanding around the various aspects of Constitutional Law. Each chapter has a workbook to help prepare students. This book has been published open access to ensure that every law student and the public has access to it.

Part 1 can be accessed here

Dikeledi ha di wele fatshe

2021-04-15T15:44:05+02:00

Dikeledi ha di wele fatshe ke tshwantshiso e buang ka ngwanana ya bitswang Mamello ya robehileng lengwele mme a rojwa ke moshanyana ya bitswang Tatolo ya etsang Kereiti ya leshome le metso e mmedi. Mamello yena o etsa kereiti ya borobedi. Bobedi ba kana sekolo mmoho. Tatolo o dumela mpa empa batswadi ba hae ba latola hore ke ngwana wa hae. Taba ena e thatafala hoo e iswang moreneng ke batswadi ba Mamello hore morena a e rarolle. Morena le lekgotla la hae ba rarolla taba ena ka ho bitsa monga molato ho tla araba ditaba tsa hae ka pela ntatae. Kgabareng batswadi ba moshanyana ba hlolwa ke ditaba kaha mora a dumela molato mme a bontsha a rata ngwananyana. Nakong ena ditaba di thatafalla batswadi ba Tatolo mme ba lokela ho lefa molato.

Dikeledi ha di wele fatshe is a drama book that talks about Mamello who is a grade eight learner who is impregnated by a grade twelve learner Tatolo. They both go to the same school and are seen together after school. Tatolo admits to impregnating Mamello but his parents denies and say it is not him. The matter gets complicated between two parents that is is taken to the village king to resolve it. The king and his kingsmen calls the boy to question him about the matter in the presence of his father and he admits being the father of Mamello's unborn child. The matter gets resolved and his parents are requested to pay the damage. In the midst of all these, Mamello's parents stand with their daughter.

Constitutional Law for Students

2020-12-14T15:29:15+02:00

Part 2 can be accessed here

Bongani Mayosi

2020-12-10T08:50:13+02:00

This is a bibliography of the works of Professor Bongani Mayosi.

Biomedical Engineering for Africa

2020-01-30T16:10:05+02:00

Health technology innovation in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), including countries in Africa, falls far short of meeting the healthcare needs of these settings. The result is a heavy reliance on products and technologies imported from industrialised countries that are often not suited to, or sustainable for, LMICs.

Appropriate healthcare products for LMICs are best developed in these countries, where local knowledge and understanding of needs, context and available resources may be incorporated into designs and implementation plans. The objectives for enabling health technology development in LMICs include: 1) expanding the base of expertise through research training programmes with a problem-solving focus; 2) stimulating new knowledge, approaches and solutions by enabling innovation; and 3) integrating research communities within and across institutions to build critical mass.

The field of biomedical engineering is central to health technology innovation. This book is a response to the need for biomedical engineering capacity in Africa. It is grounded in the African context. It serves as a resource for academics and students in biomedical engineering, for those interested in entering the field in any capacity and for practitioners at every stage of product development. University leaders intent on establishing new biomedical engineering programmes or departments, may draw on the content for guidance on structuring their offerings. The book reaches beyond Africa, as it is relevant to other LMIC settings, and provides insights to guide global health initiatives focused on technology innovation.

Conference Proceedings of Adaptation Futures 2018

2020-12-10T08:51:37+02:00

The Conference Proceedings are the product of the 2018 Adaptation Futures conference that was held in Cape Town from 18 – 21 June, co-hosted by UCT’s African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI), the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and UN Environment’s World Adaptation Science Programme (PROVIA). Adaptation Futures is the world’s premier international adaptation conference series and is held every two years. 2018 was the first time that this conference was held in Africa, and consequently, it aimed to focus on African and developing world linkages with adaptation.

The extended abstracts were submitted after the conference to allow the authors to absorb the conference insights into their work.