Vice Dean - Prof Patrick Mafora

For the period 2015 - 2020, the University of the Free State identified three interconnected priority areas: Support services foundation, the Human Project and the Academic Project. The latter project is the one in which the Teaching and Learning Unit in the Dean’s office has the most defined contribution to make. One of the strategic goals related to the Academic Project is to improve the institution’s academic reputation by, inter alia, remaining sustainable and increasing student success. Strategies employed by the university to materialise these objectives are strategic management of enrolments and improvement of the quality and effectiveness of teaching and learning. Against this bigger institutional picture as a backdrop, the management of teaching and learning in the Faculty of Education hinges on four declared intentions, namely to:

• Support and engage students, in and out of the classroom.
• Support staff in their professional development journey.
• Enhance the learning environment by attending to quality assurance mechanisms.
• Enhance the faculty processes for new programme application, submission, implementation, and marketing of offerings.

In our efforts to materialise these intentions, we take our cue from the recently renewed core values of the UFS, namely: academic excellence, inclusivity, diversity, and transformation. Holding on to this philosophy in everything we do, the Teaching and Learning Unit operates as an active agent of intrinsic, constructive educational change with a view of optimising the capacity of not only the Faculty of Education, but also the broader UFS community, to be accountable to society.

For more information, please see the Teaching and Learning Unit Brochure