A marked decline in public and private funding the world over has brought undue pressure on higher education institutions. This is against the background of heightened expectations for quality educational outcomes by key stakeholders, be it government, private sector, and/or students. Compounding the challenges institutions face is the prevailing dogma that casts institutions of higher education as inefficient, expensive, and labor-intensive [1].

The situation in South Africa is bleaker when considering the steep cuts in subsidies for public universities in recent years against rising fixed and operational costs. At a time when resources are being constrained, CPUT like other universities and publicly funded entities in South Africa will have to start looking at sweating its assets to get a better return on its investments. Furthermore, social upheavals (such as “Fees Must Fall”), legislation, and government policies (e.g. Fee increase regulation) have affected university operations in terms of financial resource allocations to deliver optimally on its academic programmes.

This Project Pegasus master document includes the deliberations and feedback of the CPUT Staff Establishment Workshop held from the 30^th to the 31^st of August 2023. Emeritus Professor Derek van der Merwe, an external experienced facilitator and strategist in Public Higher Education, facilitated this important engagement.

The workshop was informed by the establishment of the Staff Establishment Project in July 2021 to ensure that CPUT’s staff establishment and organisational structure is fit for purpose and aligned to its Vision 2030 Strategy to enhance the University’s agility into posterity. Focus area four (4) of the Vision 2030 strategy highlights ‘Smart human capital and talent management to ensure that we remain focused on people as our most important resource’. The goal of this focus area is to promote a culture of human-centricity and smart people of integrity, mutual respect, and excellence, who nurture collaboration, and are innovative in support of One Smart CPUT.

In line with V2030, Project Pegasus is grounded on two overarching principles that will guide the process going forward and these are:

• An Informed, Engaged and Valued Workforce (Oneness)
• Continuous Improvement (Smartness)

1. Balzer, W.K., Brodke, M.H. & Kizhakethalackal, E. 2015. Lean higher education: successes, challenges, and realizing potential, International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 32: 9, 924-933. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJQRM-08-2014-0119]

Project Pegasus (Phambili) was approved by Mancom to implement identified and necessary actions to ensure CPUT’s Financial Sustainability in the Medium- to Long-Term. This is due to the steep cuts in subsidies for public universities by the Government in recent years against rising fixed and operational costs. Examples of these include:

• A marked decline in Philanthropic giving and other donations for Universities and public institutions;
• Above-inflation cost increases in utilities and other essential services against declining revenues over the past several years;
• Massification of South African Higher Education Access not supported with concomitant financial resources e.g. NSFAS Funding; NRF etc.
• Legislative constraints to enhance University Revenue streams e.g. Fee increase regulation

Project Pegasus focuses on enhancing the delivery of strategic objectives across CPUT notwithstanding the prevailing financial challenges. Core to an organisation’s long-term sustainability is operational efficiency (or excellence). Operational efficiency broadly refers to the ability of an organisation to deliver quality services with fewer resources (i.e. doing more with less). Implicit in this, from a financial standpoint is to optimise its operations while managing operational expenses. The more output an organisation can produce from a given amount of input, the more efficient those operations likely are. At present, our cost creep is not sustainable, placing our ability to optimally deliver on our Academic Agenda at risk.

Project Pegasus is not about reducing CPUT Staff headcount but ensuring we achieve more Outputs relative to our Staff Complement, rather

• It is about eliminating services and accompanying expenditures that are not core to CPUT’s purpose as an institution namely teaching, research, and community engagement;
• It is about streamlining or consolidation of services/functions: eliminating duplications and adhering to the approved Delegation of Authority Matrix;
• It is about enhancing service provision by leveraging internal resources, expertise, and competencies rather than outsourcing to third parties;
• It is about prioritising Cost Containment to ensure Financial Sustainability for CPUT’s long-term viability

Informed by the deliberations from the 2023 Staff Establishment Workshop as well as Executive Management insights, a number of institutional “burning platforms” have been identified. Implementing and/or driving improvements thereofcould go a long way to enhance our ways of working to achieve the overarching objectives of the Staff Establishment Project and other much needed improvement initiatives. Each of these ‘burning platforms’ has been broadly grouped under a workstream, each staffed with a workstream lead and an executive sponsor. The workstreams will be governed as follows:

• Executive Sponsor for Project Pegasus: Prof Chris Nhlapo, CPUT Vice-Chancellor and Principal;
• Executive Managers will have strategic oversight on Delivery of Project Pegasus Workstreams (Not aligned to their Normal Responsibilities)
• Workstreams Leads will work with various CPUT Personnel to oversee, align, and coordinate the Project Pegasus activities;

Pegasus Dimension 1: People and Culture

Enablers: Ethics Culture; Compliance Mindset; Work study for key activities; Redesign business processes; Redesign organogram; Purposeful Recruitment; Enhanced Recruitment Processes; Reskill & repurpose affected staff; Stabilized support staff headcount relative to academic staff.

Pegasus Dimension 2: Cost containment through efficient and effective deployment of resources

Enablers: Optimized Business Processes; Innovative Procurement Processes; Alternative and cost-effective Overhead/Utility Expenditure

*Pilot - Reviews of a sample of business processes: HC(recruitment); Student Recruitment/Registration Grant Funding Management. Based on review and lessons learned engaged with all relevant structures to improve or enhance, where necessary Institutional, Divisional and or Faculty Business processes.

Pegasus Dimension 3: Income generation via diverse 3^rd income streams

Enablers: Enrolments Student success rates, Spin-offs/licensee fees from Commercialization; Monetization of Research and related Infrastructure; Spin-offs/licensee fees from Commercialization; Short courses; Donations & endowments; Stand-alone entities

No. 1 - Fiscal Prudence (doing more with less)

• Cost management and containment (spec. overheads such as utilities)
• Increase 3rd Stream income generating activities

No. 2 - Entrenching an ethics and compliance culture with less

• Promotion of CPUT Ethics Framework
• Socialisation of Ethics and ESG Initiatives
• Training and Stakeholder Engagements

No. 3 - Improving Operational Efficiency and Effectiveness

• Business Process Optimisation
• Relevant and up to date Policies, Procedures, and Guidelines
• Effective Facilities Management and Monetisation

No. 4 - Improving Operational Human Capital Process Improvements

• Efficient and Effective Staff Recruitment and Retention
• Headcount Management Optimisation
• Talent Management (e.g. Training)

No. 5 - Student Engagement

• Review of all student support processes from recruitment to graduation as well as proactive alumni engagement

No. 6 - Leveraging Technology Enablers

• Implement Automation and Digitalisation Initiatives where possible

• Entrenching an ethics and compliance culture as well as consequence management - to combat corruption, fraud, ill-discipline, financial mismanagement, etc;
• Optimised Delegation of Authority - empowered and effective accountability and decision-making;
• Operational efficiency - focusing on academic and support staff outputs (e.g. Performance measures for levels 5 – 8); updated business processes and policies (including SOPs);
• Execution Gap Analysis - doing more with less;
• Core Competency Development (where applicable) - Establishment of an integrated competency development system in divisions/support units.
• Sustainability Model for the University a sustainability/viability model for the University
• Optimum staffing structure – headcount; ratios of academic vs support staff ratio etc.