South African tertiary institutions took a giant leap forward in the fight against HIV and Aids when they recently launched a national strategic policy framework at a conference held at UCT.

Produced in collaboration with universities by the Higher Education South Africa, the Department of Higher Education and Training as well as Higher Education Aids (HEAIDS), the framework provides a useful guide to universities and FETs in developing an effective response to the HIV/Aids pandemic.

The three-day national conference of Higher Education institutional HIV/Aids programmes was recently held under the theme: Applying the Research/Researching the Applied.

Speakers who addressed the conference included the Professor Anthony Staak, CPUT Deputy Vice Chancellor, the Vice-chancellors of UWC, Stellenbosch and UCT, the Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training Mduduzi Manana as well as speakers from the national Department of Health, UNAIDS and HEAIDS.

The main highlights of the conference were the unveiling of the new HEAIDS logo and the launch of the Policy and Strategic Framework on HIV/Aids for Higher Education.

The first day of this conference was planned to coincide with the celebration of World AIDS Day, on the eve of which the UNAIDS reported that South Africa increased its rollout of HIV treatment by 75% in the last two years, ensuring 1.7 million people had access.

The World Aids Day/Opening of the Conference was hosted by the CPUT HIV/Aids Unit and its director, Professor Ashraf Mohammed.

The report also indicated that during this period new HIV infections in South Africa had fallen by more than 50 000.

Kwanele Butana

Written by CPUT News
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Cape Peninsula University of Technology Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic, Professor Anthony Staak, has been nominated to serve on the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) structure that will oversee the grooming of a new generation of academics.

Professor Staak has been nominated as one of the Higher Education South Africa (HESA)’s representative on the DHET Review Committee for the nGAP Programme. The nGAP is the New Generation of Academics Programme.

He describes the nGAP as “a bold initiative of the DHET to address the challenges that universities are currently facing with respect to the size, composition and capacity of their academic staff. The Higher Education Sector has an aging workforce that does not reflect the demographics of this country. This is particularly the case among research staff, where there is also a general lack of research capacity”.

The nGAP initiative makes 200 posts available to the sector this year, which it will fund for a period of six years. The DHET will cover the full cost of these posts for the first three years, and then for the next three years a diminishing proportion. From the seventh year onward the costs of the posts will be covered by the institutions. During the six year period the nGap scholars must have completed their doctorate degree, and undertaken a range of staff development programmes.

Universities were invited to apply for these 200 posts and Professor Staak is one of the five-members of the panel set up by the DHET to review the applications.

Professor Staak has served on various Department of Education (DoE) and DHET task teams including the DoE Task Team on State Funding for Experiential Learning and the DoE Task Team to review Teaching Development Grant funding. Most recently he served on the HESA Task Team on the Post School System. He was previously a member of the Research Strategy Group of HESA, the Doctoral Task Team of the Council on Higher Education (CHE) and a member of the CHE task team undertaking a 20 year Review of South African Higher Education. Professor Staak is currently serving as a member of the Teaching and Learning Strategy Group of HESA and the DHET reference group for HEQSF aligned qualifications.

Written by Ilse Fredericks

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