STUDENT AFFAIRS DIVISION RE-IMAGINES ITSELF FOR AN ENRICHED STUDENT EXPERIENCE

Officials from Walter Sisulu University’s Student Development and Support Services (SDSS) department met in East London for a four-day workshop geared towards crafting a new strategic plan for the division which caters for student’s needs across the university’s four campuses.

The workshop held between 15 and 18 March was spearheaded by the newly appointed Student Affairs Executive Director, Dr. Irene Patience Mohasoa with the objective of developing a five-year strategic plan as well as an annual performance plan, in line with the WSU 2020-2030 Strategic Plan.

Goal number 4 of WSU’s Strategic Plan 2020 – 2030 stipulates that WSU ought to enrich students’ experience within the university, and as such has become a catalyst for crafting the new SDSS strategic plan.

Mohasoa stated that they were planning to re-imagine SDSS -also known as Student Affairs- to provide enhanced service offering through: Residences, Sports and Recreation, Student Health, Student Counselling, and Student Governance, Development and Culture.

“As a division this is a time where we are going to re-think and reimagine the support services that we are giving to students so that they are relevant to the needs on the ground. We can achieve Goal 4: Enriching Student Experiences as articulated in the university’s 2020 to 2030 Strategic Plan,” said Mohasoa.

Over the past few weeks, all Student Affairs units have been hard at work crafting their own five years strategic plans and annual performance plans. During the workshop, a host of speakers from WSU’s management gave sterling presentations of their own functions, while Dean of Students at Nelson Mandela University and Deputy Director of SASSAP, Luthando Jack gave a presentation on Student Affairs in Higher Education. These were then taken into consideration by each unit and factored into their plans to ensure synergy between Student Affairs and the rest of the university.

“As we plan we need to look at what other avenues we may explore in rendering services to our students,” said Mohasoa.

Some of the developments which are envisaged for SDSS include the rethinking of residence spaces to be more conducive to online learning; meeting the needs of students living with disability; re-skilling of SDSS staff, amongst other things.

In her February University Opening Address, WSU Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Professor Rushiella Songca expressed great disenchantment with the university’s current lack of peaceful engagement. The issue of engagement also came up in Mohasoa’s discussions, where she expressed Student Affairs’ plan in place to rapidly foster a culture of judicious engagement between ISRC and the university.

“We are currently working on a draft student leadership engagement plan, where we are outlining how the ISRC and CSRCs will engage with various stakeholders in the university. We will also create opportunities for the SCR to meet with other stakeholders in the university, including deans of faculties, so that they may engage on issues without these escalating unnecessarily,” Mohasoa stated.

Indibano Training Consultants, the service provider tasked with assisting SDSS in creating their strategy, has started working with the various SDSS divisions to factor their plans into the overall SDSS draft Strategic Plan.

Executive Director of Indibano Training Consulting, Dr Malinge Gqeba said that this would be the beginning of SDSS responding to the new dynamics of the Higher Education sphere which have shifted over the past few years, exacerbated by Covid-19. He also stated that it would be highly crucial for the department to profile the type of students that the university attracts, and in turn use it to offer the best possible student services.

“The other area is how the data that Student Affairs has is used to benefit the university and benefit higher education nationally and globally. There needs to be a move towards using that for research purposes so that the outcomes inform how student affairs operates,” Gqeba said.

The draft SDSS Strategic Plan 2022 – 2026 and the 2022 Annual Performance Plan will be shared with other relevant stakeholders for comments and consideration before it is sent to management for approval.

By Yanga Ziwele