HERS-SA ACADEMY 2011 REPORT

The ninth annual HERS-SA ACADEMY took place from the 11th -17th September 2011 at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business in Cape Town, South Africa. Eighty-four women employed in Higher Education institutions met in Cape Town to participate in an intensive seven-day residential programme.

Of the eighty-four delegates who attended the ACADEMY, seventy-nine came from eighteen South African higher education institutions.  Five international delegates who attended came from institutions based in Tanzania, Uganda, Namibia, Botswana and Mauritius.  Eleven applications were placed on the waiting list as the ACADEMY was fully subscribed and some applicants on the waiting list have already asked to be placed on the ACADEMY 2012 provisional application list.

Forty-four speakers and facilitators generously shared their time, knowledge and experience with delegates in numerous forums ranging from morning plenary sessions, afternoon workshops and other networking functions.  Six of these speakers also attended the ACADEMY 2011 as delegates.  The high profile of many of the speakers and facilitators positioned them to serve as crucial role models to delegates who are striving to aspire for senior positions in higher education.  The ACADEMY 2011 secured as speakers, facilitators, or invited guests the participation of an Acting Deputy-Director General from the Department of Higher Education and Training, two Vice-Chancellors, a Pro-Vice Chancellor, eight Deputy Vice-Chancellors, seven Deans, Professors, Executive Directors and Directors, some of whom travelled to Cape Town to participate in the ACADEMY.    Their support and commitment to the ACADEMY 2011 was secured due to the credibility that HERS-SA has built over the years within the higher education sector.

Invitations were issued in April to the Vice-Chancellors and development professionals from all 23 publicly funded South African universities to nominate and sponsor senior women or those possessing the potential to hold senior positions in future to attend the ACADEMY. The invitation was also extended to the Vice-Chancellors of institutions in other parts of Africa and Mauritius.  HERS-SA also received independent enquiries and applications from the Namibia Business School, the University of Botswana, the ETDP SETA and the Southern African Wildlife College.

HERS-SA Objectives

The objectives of the ACADEMY remain constant from year to year. HERS-SA’s philosophy on the provision of development interventions at the ACADEMY is not based on a “deficit model” where women are regarded as lacking resources which must be provided to them. Instead, the ACADEMY aims to provide a stimulating environment where women can learn from the contributions of experts in the sector and from interaction with each other.  The onus is also seen to lie with delegates to assume some degree of responsibility to form networks with others and to continue to maintain these after the ACADEMY.  A HERS-SA Facebook page was also developed before the ACADEMY, to be available as a social networking platform for the delegates attending as well as all our alum.

The objectives of the 2011 ACADEMY remains, as in previous years as follows:

• To enable delegates to hear from leaders in the sector who addressed a number of important issues facing higher education institutions at the institutional level;
• To provide delegates with the opportunity to learn, share and explore specific strategies currently employed to address some of the challenges and changes in institutions of higher learning;
• To provide an opportunity for delegates to reflect on their own personal professional growth; &
• To enable delegates to engage and network with other professional women who understand the employment dynamics of higher education. 

The Programme

The format of the HERS-SA ACADEMY 2011 programme (see end of report) was by and large similar to that used successfully in previous years which included offering morning plenary sessions and workshops in the afternoon. However, the number of workshops offered in the 2011 programme were reduced and replaced by two panel discussions on Monday and Friday afternoon respectively.  The panel discussion on Monday addressed career management strategies for women in higher education. 

Three plenary sessions were held in the mornings, and parallel, personalized career development interventions were offered in the afternoons.  Dinner guest speakers, who are regarded as role models in the sector, were invited to address delegates during formal dinners held on Sunday, Monday and Friday evening. In response to the feedback we received from delegates attending the previous year’s ACADEMY, an informal dinner and networking opportunity was offered to delegates on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.  

A new panel discussion was added to the programme during the week of the ACADEMY, due to the cancellation of a plenary session by a speaker who needed to attend to a personal emergency.   Five delegates representing international institutions were asked to participate in a panel discussion on higher education challenges in their respective countries.

Some speakers who were available and who received very favourable ratings from delegates in previous years were invited to participate again in 2011. However the programme also offered new insights on certain topics and new and revised workshops were included.

Participant Feedback

Of the eighty four delegates attending, seventy-four handed in evaluation forms which rated the ACADEMY.  During the ACADEMY itself, delegates used the HERS-SA Facebook page to share their impressions of the ACADEMY with each other. A number of delegates also emailed the organizers after the ACADEMY to thank them for hosting a successful event.  The overall feedback received from delegates was overwhelmingly positive. A sample of narratives extracted from the anonymously completed evaluation forms reflects this:

“(The ACADEMY)…has been an uplifting experience for me. In many ways I have learnt how to approve of myself and to perform with confidence as a leader and to strive to the top”.

“My experience at HERS was very inspiring.  It got me thinking about my goals and how best I can position myself to achieve them”.

“It was an amazing experience.  I felt enriched, inspired and informed - EMPOWERED AND CONNECTED.  WOW!”.

“I have found the ACADEMY extremely worthwhile on many levels – professionally, personally and socially.  I have many new ideas, insights, and new questions to ask of myself, my division and my institution”.

“All fears and doubts have been taken away.  I am reinforced academically”.

“It gave me so much food for thought, as well as the luxury of time to reflect upon it.  I feel I have really developed and come to “own” my identity as an academic”.

“I am a new person than when I arrived last Sunday.  I am going back with a lot of enthusiasm and strategies to plan my career towards the Top Job!”.

“I had many WOW moments and learnt a lot how other professional HEI women have similar personal and professional problems”.

“I think it was awesome to meet women who have the same aspirations and uncertainties”.

“…I have a lot to take home with me.  I have a clear picture of my role more than ever and how networking can pave the way for me to get to the top.”

“It made me realize that I am not alone – there are other women with the same ambitions and challenges.  It also focused my attention on developing my potential”.

“I really gained a lot of insight at the ACADEMY.  It made me confident about my existing abilities and created reflection on the development of superior skills.  It energized me to believe that I can do what it takes to get to the top”.

“(It)…was eye-opening, motivating and practical”.

“Excellently organized and informative presentations.  It was worth coming here”.

Of the seventy-four evaluation forms received, seventy-one delegates stated that they would recommend the ACADEMY to colleagues in future, while one said no, another was uncertain and one evaluation form was incomplete. The majority of delegates stated that the ACADEMY had met their expectations and offered many constructive suggestions for the organizers to take into account for future events.

 Registration and Opening Afternoon

Delegates registered for the ACADEMY on Sunday afternoon where they were greeted by organizers and could network with other delegates.  As a departure from previous years, the ACADEMY 2011 opted for a more environmentally friendly route, where bulky files containing hard copies of all presentations, delegates’ names, biographical sketches of presenters and copies of formal presentations, references to, and copies of, relevant articles were not provided to each delegate during registration.  Instead, branded HERS-SA flash-drives containing all this information were handed out to delegates. 

Delegates also received a thinner hardcopy file which contained information on all the delegates, an introduction to the ACADEMY, the ACADEMY programme and a comprehensive evaluation form (all of which were also loaded on to their flash-drives). All delegates also received a slim carry bag for their file and flash-drive. These bags were sourced from a Street Children empowerment project. The ACADEMY also supported another empowerment project by purchasing attractive beaded, name tag holders for all delegates.

The ACADEMY was officially opened on Sunday afternoon by the Director of HERS-SA.  She provided a brief history of HERS-SA, and encouraged delegates to participate fully to derive maximum benefit from the ACADEMY week. Delegates were then asked to convene in one of eight allocated break-away groups to share their findings on a pre-ACADEMY exercise which they had been asked to complete.  (These allocated break-away groups were formed to reflect institutional diversity). The break-away group activity was designed to increase networking amongst delegates and to provide them with an opportunity to critically share and compare the status of gender equity in their respective institutions. Each break-away group was asked to choose a leader who then reported back to a plenary on her group’s analysis of gender equity trends.    Each break-away group’s inputs were captured on flip charts which were posted on the walls of the room where daily plenary sessions took place, to allow delegates to critically reflect on the insights derived in the opening break-away session.

Dinner Speakers

On Sunday evening the Opening Dinner speaker, Ferial Haffajee the Editor-in-Chief of City Press newspaper, provided a dynamic address on the role and portrayal of women in the media.

Professor Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan from the Department of Zoology, University of Cape Town was the dinner speaker on Monday night where she shared her career trajectory as a successful academic and also gave a motivational talk encouraging delegates to overcome any self-limiting beliefs. 

The closing dinner speaker on Friday evening, Professor Vivienne Lawack-Davids, Dean of Law at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University focused on women as transformational leaders.

Formal Presentations

Plenary presentations: From Monday through to the Saturday morning, sixteen speakers were invited to present on topics ranging from the external, academic and institutional environments, thus providing delegates with a holistic and critical understanding of the higher education landscape, along with examples of best practice and challenges in each area.   The calibre and high profile of some of the speakers were rated very highly by delegates in the evaluation forms.  Many of these presenters, male and female, were described as “excellent and powerful”, “bold and realistic”, “highly relevant and engaging”, and “thought provoking”.  A session entitled “Landing the Top Job” which had in previous years been offered as a workshop at the ACADEMY was offered as a plenary presentation on Saturday morning.  The last plenary on the programme was presented by the Director who summed up the proceedings of the week and in closing introduced delegates to various career management tools which they were encouraged to use to support their personal and career development aspirations.

 Panel Discussions:

The first panel discussion on career management took place on Monday afternoon as a plenary. 

Four panellists first shared their views on career management considerations within the higher education context.  Delegates were then asked to work in pre-allocated break-away groups and to develop and submit two questions to the Chair which was then posed to the panel for a response.  Delegates were allocated to break-away groups based on similarities in rank and occupational position to ensure that their group discussions on career management could be situated in a similar professional context. The majority of delegates rated this session as excellent.   Some of their qualitative feedback included comments such as “thought provoking”, “empowering presentations and discussion”, “useful and practical” and “the panel members were living examples of leaders – they shared their experiences with open hearts”.

The second panel discussion on Tuesday afternoon was the Deans Panel.  One of the panellists was a delegate attending the ACADEMY while another was a Dean and Pro Vice Chancellor from Salford University who was visiting Cape Town on the day and who volunteered to participate on the panel to provide an international perspective.

The Deans Panel was offered as an afternoon workshop option to delegates.  As in previous years the Deans Panel was rated as excellent by the majority of delegates who attended this session and it was described as “highly relevant”, “practical” and “inspiring”.

The third panel discussion took place on Thursday morning, where the panellists comprised of five delegates attending the ACADEMY from higher education institutions outside of South Africa.  The countries they represented were Botswana, Uganda, Namibia, Tanzania and Mauritius.  As mentioned earlier in this report, this session replaced a plenary presentation that had to be cancelled.  Panellists were asked to share the higher education challenges experienced in their respective countries and to critically evaluate it against what they had learnt from other presenters at the ACADEMY on the South African experience. 

The international panel discussion was rated very highly by other delegates whose feedback included the following “very rich”, “interesting”, “superb”, “fascinating, useful to hear about comparative environments and practices” and “make it a permanent fixture...(on the programme and)...invite more international delegates”.  This feedback reflects the high value provided by international delegates attending the ACADEMY.

The fourth and final panel discussion in the programme, entitled “Top Jobs” took place as a plenary on Friday afternoon.  In this panel discussion four female Deputy Vice-Chancellors from Witwatersrand University, University of the Western Cape, Durban University of Technology and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University shared their career biographies and career management strategies.  Delegates were then invited to ask the panellists questions.  The “Top Jobs” session was also rated highly by most delegates.

Afternoon Workshops

During two afternoons of the ACADEMY, delegates were provided with a choice of seven interactive workshops as career development interventions. Delegates were required to choose workshops prior to the start of the ACADEMY based on their personal development needs.  To assist them with making a choice, delegates were provided electronically with workshop summaries and the biographical sketches of every facilitator. Workshops that had been highly rated in past ACADEMIES formed part of the 2011 programme with one new workshop included on “Personal Wellness and Lifestyle Change”, an area identified as a personal development need by delegates attending the ACADEMY during 2010.

Delegates were asked to sign an attendance register for evaluation and monitoring purposes. Workshops were generally well-attended and enabled delegates to directly engage in a more interactive manner with a range of challenging issues in higher education. Evaluation ratings from delegates on these workshops indicate that overall they were all well received and rated as relevant.

Networking

Opportunities to network commenced as soon as delegates arrived for registration on Sunday afternoon. The two break-away group exercises further expedited the establishment of connections. As in previous ACADEMIES, delegates received a contact list in their files of all delegates attending the ACADEMY.  A significant degree of networking also took place both formally during the plenary sessions and workshops and informally during breaks and formal and informal mealtimes.  Social networking platforms like Facebook were also used by delegates to network during the ACADEMY.

Facilities, Logistics and Materials  

By and large, the majority of delegates rated the facilities, logistics and material as good.  The organization of the event, the quality of the programme, excellent time management and the overall efficiency of the HERS-SA team was rated by most delegates as being good to excellent.  All speakers and facilitators fulfilled their commitment by arriving at the ACADEMY on time. 

The majority of speakers and facilitators provided an electronic copy of their presentations to HERS-SA prior to the start of the ACADEMY, which allowed the organizers to copy these on the flash-drives which were provided to each delegate during registration.  Some speakers and facilitators, who were unable to provide the organizers with an electronic copy of their presentations in advance, provided an electronic copy to the organizers at the ACADEMY.   These presentations were then emailed these to delegates a few days after the ACADEMY. 

 Funding  

HERS-SA remains most appreciative to the Carnegie Corporation of New York for its no cost extension of an existing grant which allowed for the sponsorship of two women from Tanzania and Uganda.    HERS-SA would also like to thank all the other delegates (South African and international) who were funded either by their respective universities or from personal funds.

International Delegates  

Feedback from the anonymous Evaluation Forms completed by the Carnegie funded delegates’ shows that their participation in the HERS-SA ACADEMY had been valuable.  It was most encouraging to note that the Carnegie funded delegates together with another delegate who identified her international status on her evaluation form, all indicated that they would recommend the ACADEMY to their colleagues when they returned back to their institutions.

Conclusion

The HERS-SA ACADEMY 2011 was a successful event. The comprehensive feedback that was received by delegates, speakers and facilitators will be used to inform the content and structure of the 2012 ACADEMY.   

The 2012 ACADEMY will take place on the 9th to 15th September in Cape Town. The ACADEMY 2012 will be an important milestone as it will mark a decade of work by HERS-SA to support the advancement of gender equity within higher education.    

 Report compiled by Dr. Sabie Surtee
Director: HERS-SA
13th  October 2011

HERS-SA ACADEMY 2011

Sunday 11th – Saturday 17th September 2011

PROGRAMME