The University of the Western Cape has over the past few years steadily become one of the research-led teaching and learning universities in South Africa, with the capacity to produce and advance new knowledge in recognised research strength and the translation of this knowledge through innovation endeavours.

An exciting opportunity exists in the UWC research and postgraduate office for a suitably qualified candidate to be responsible for the strategic leadership of the quality, viability, and relevance of the Postgraduate programs in the University.

The successful incumbent is responsible for the following Key Performance Areas:

• Strengthen the University's postgraduate programmes through association with the faculties.
• Offer workshops for supervisor development and support students through research capacity development programmes
• Develop and lead a programme of strategic support to postgraduate programme, increasing postgraduate quality, enrolment, and graduations through the postgraduate academy Provide a one-stop service. This would be attained through streamlining internal academic processes.
• Ensure timeous coordination of scholarship / fellowship calls, submissions to the national research foundation (NRF), and internal bursary calls.
• Manage the postgraduate lifecycle to ensure an exceptional postgraduate student experience.
• Partner with faculties and divisions in facilitating the development, promotion and delivery of research skills and supervisory skills and develop programmes for students and staff in accordance with the strategic priorities of the University, according to national and international best practice.
• Partner with all key stakeholders in the university relevant to postgraduate studies including but not limited to student administration, CSSS, financial aid, etc
• Respond to Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) research capacity building, related policy documents, draft proposals, and reports.
• Undertake statutory reporting for postgraduate, as well as review and revise policies related to the portfolio.
• Provide hands-on operational leadership to bed down a new organizational structure, which includes the design and implementation of training and workflows to accommodate the systems and strategy.
• Responsible for ongoing recalibration of business processes, workflows, and adjustments as the various modules of the system unfold.
• Collaborating with IT Services to ensure high levels of systems availability, functionality, integrity, and efficiency.
• Collaborating with other managers e.g., Deputy Deans etc to ensure that researchers and other stakeholders are provided with a seamless postgraduate service and understand the processes which need to be followed to access this service.
• Conceptualizing and managing postgraduate support service events, including presentation of opportunities offered by major funders and research organisations to various audiences and through different media.
• Engaging with individual researchers (academics) in all stages of their careers on the entire spectrum of research-related support.
• Engaging with committees and programmes related to the University Research Committee.
• Maintaining and strengthening relationships with external stakeholders, such as the NRF, EU Commission, relevant government departments and audit agencies.
• Maintaining optimal relationships with researchers and committee members
• Building and maintaining relationships with other research offices (nationally and internationally)
• Ensuring that effective communication exists with all stakeholders and that the appropriate channels are there to resolve problems as they occur.
• Monitoring the quality of support for each stakeholder and providing recommendations where change is required
• Ensuring that quality information services are consistently provided to stakeholders for all Research related services.
• Leading,motivating and managing a team of permanent staff, interns as well as ad hoc staff and consultants
• Managing the distribution of work of staff to ensure they meet the unit’s objectives and their stakeholders’ needs.
• Managing and monitoring expenditure ON NRF-related and other funding cost centres, in collaboration with the Finance team.
• Providing input into the annual budgeting process for the Funding Committees.
• Coordinating relevant reports, obtaining sign-off as required and submitting these to Government or funders.
• Reporting on activities of the Research Support and Postgraduate services cluster, in line with the Research and Postgraduate Strategy, for input into research reports or to funders.
• Communicating and driving the importance of Research and Postgraduate services with faculties and other stakeholders by playing an advocacy role.
• Providing feedback to faculties of new services available to them, and articulating the faculty needs to the relevant staff.
  

Minimum Requirements (Qualification and Experience)

• A PhD Qualification at an NQF 10 or equivalent.
• 8 – 10 years’ experience in research
• An academic with extensive experience in the management of postgraduate administration
• At least 3 to 5 years of relevant management experience.
• A sound track record of publications
• Evidence of guiding and successfully supervising postgraduate students and successful research proposal writing

Required competencies (skills, knowledge, and behavioural attributes):

• Ability to work independently and accurately under extreme pressure
• Cope with multi-tasking
• Sound Project and Financial Management Skills
• Interpret and implement legislation, regulations, policies, and guidelines
• Contribute to the academic research enterprise through skilled relationship building
• Monitoring and evaluation Skills
• Demonstrable leadership, influencing and negotiation skills
• People management including performance management
• Decision making and problem solving
• Sound Project and Financial Management Skills
• Planning and organizing
• Professional development