Prof. Pamela Dube, CUT Vice-chancellor and Principal; Prof. Inger Mokkelbost Haug and Dr. Sally Dzingwa, CUT Registrar during discussions at the 5th Annual Transformation Summit.

The Central University of Technology, Free State (CUT) held its annual two-day Transformation Summit under the theme: ‘Building an inclusive and sustainable institution and future through innovation’. Engaging at her first summit since becoming the Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Prof. Pamela Dube highlighted that in this ever-dynamic and everchanging landscape of higher education where we are confronted by social ills such as inequality, gender-based violence and harsh economic times, innovation continues to be ranked very highly on CUT’s transformation agenda. 

“To realise the CUT 2030 Vision, firstly, we need a transformation that opens a direction to inclusive economic growth and development. Secondly, ensuring that the STEM fields have enough representation of women and differently abled persons and deliberately create strict conditions for women to be agents of change, mitigation, resilience, adaptation, and sustainability. And thirdly, to promote the quality of teaching and learning and ensure that programmes are transformed to be responsive to the national, regional, and African context,” said Prof. Dube.

Prof. Inger Mokkelbost Haug, Professor Emeritus at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences (INN) Campus Hamar, Norway, delivered the keynote address: ‘Building an inclusive and sustainable institution and future through innovation: Transformation through dialogue?’

Prof. Haug is a distinguished scholar, educator, and political activist whose contribution to politics and international studies has left an indelible mark on academia.  Her academic journey began with pursuing an Advanced Degree in Urban and Regional Planning at Edinburg University in 1976, laying the foundation for a career marked by excellence and education.    

“Often, we do not know what long-term impact teaching, learning, and experiences have on our lives. Dialogue and reflection on these experiences might open doors and insights we didn’t know or didn’t want to know of as part of the world. I know that my experiences in the UK, Scotland and Edinburg gave me experiences and insights with long-life transformative influences,” said Prof. Haug.

She also touched on the importance of the clarifying part of a dialect session for proper understanding. “You might need to repeat those dialogues 100 times to build trust, which is good. It would be best if you allowed time to work together with trust because, with time, trust might collapse. But it might stand up again if you give it time to work. So, telling, listening, questioning, and transformation takes time and trust. And make sure that the smallest steps of transformation are celebrated with the same intensity as the very big ones. Because if you cannot live with the small scale and celebrate the small steps, it's very hard to see the road to the bigger steps,” she concluded.

The two-day summit presented an opportunity for the CUT community to identify achievements and shortfalls in achieving transformation at the institution of learning through discussions of topics including transforming institutions of higher learning through research, curriculum development and technological innovations; perspectives from the professoriate and senior degree development projects at CUT on changing innovation and providing a policy direction for the University on matters of transformation.

Prof. Inger Mokkelbost Haug, discussed transformation through dialogue at the 5^th CUT Transformation Summit.

Dr. David Mohale, Director: Office of the Vice-Chancellor, Durban University of Technology discussed ‘Transforming Institutions Of Higher Learning Through Research, Curriculum Development And Technological Innovations’.