Dr Lisa Foss Vice President of Planning and Engagement at St. Cloud State University and Chancellor's Fellow at Minnesota State, addressing delegates from universities in the Central Region on “The reimagining process of the Minnesota Schools, Colleges and University System (MNSCU)” and “St Cloud State University (SCSU) institutional effectiveness programme.”

CUT in collaboration with the Higher Education Regional Development Initiative of Central South Africa (HERDIC-SA) hosted a seminar led by Dr Lisa Foss, Vice President for Planning and Engagement at St. Cloud State University and Chancellor's Fellow at Minnesota State. 

The seminar, which took place on 23 July, was attended by delegates from Department of Education, Tshwane University of Technology, North-West University, Sol Plaatjie University, University of the Free State and Motheo TVET College.

The hosting of this dialogue demonstrated the commitment of HERDIC-SA to the regional collaborations agenda within the central region of South Africa; and many thanks to Dr Lisa Foss whose association with HERDIC-SA allows the region to grasp the importance of constantly and rigorously examining institutional effectiveness of higher education institutions in the region and come up with effective practices that will hold them accountable and transparent.

Dr Lisa Foss presented on two case studies titled “The reimagining process of the Minnesota Schools, Colleges and University System (MNSCU)” and “St Cloud State University (SCSU) institutional effectiveness programme.”

She said that the case studies gave the MNSCU System an opportunity to build a culture of evidence-based innovation and continuous improvement in a collaborative way across various campuses.

“It is an ongoing effort as this is phase one of empowering our people, unleashing the creativity of our faculties, staff and leadership to innovate with new ideas and then share those ideas,” she said. 

She further said that institutional effectiveness has become a basic requirement for any organisation and there are no perfect models out there.  Institutions within HERDIC-SA were challenged to plan together and invest resources in a collaborative manner to refine their goals and improve their effectiveness from their contexts so that regional success could be achieved.

The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System comprise of 30 state colleges and seven state universities with 54 campuses throughout Minnesota which is the fourth largest in the United States, educating over 375,000 students annually.

Hosted by CUT are colleagues and academics from different institutions such as Tshwane University of Technology, Motheo TVET college, the University of the Free State and Free State Department of Education who attended the event to further strengthen the regional collaboration and learn about the different approaches to rethinking the way in which institutions should see themselves operate within the next 10 to 15 years.