2026–2029 Funding Cycle

PROJECT 1

Continuous Professional Learning (CPL)

Project Lead: Dr Rosaline Govender

Project Lead: Dr Rosaline Govender, Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, Durban University of Technology

Partner Institutions: University of the Western Cape • Durban University of Technology • University of Fort Hare

Funding Period: April 2026 – March 2029

Overview

South African universities have long grappled with uneven and fragmented provision of professional learning opportunities for academics. While pockets of excellent practice exist across the sector, they remain largely siloed within institutions – difficult to locate, difficult to share, and inequitably distributed. Academics at historically disadvantaged institutions, in particular, often face significant barriers to accessing the structured, sustained professional development they need to grow as university teachers.

The Continuous Professional Learning (CPL) Project addresses this challenge directly. Building on a national baseline web analysis conducted during the first SAUT funding cycle (2021–2025), which confirmed significant disparities in CPL provision across all 26 public universities, this project works to make the landscape of professional learning visible, accessible, and actionable for academics at every stage of their careers.

What the Project Does

The project works across four interconnected activities. At its core is the management and continuous updating of a national CPL database, hosted on the SAUT website and freely accessible to all 26 public universities. The database catalogues professional learning programmes and opportunities across the sector, organised by career phase – from emerging and early career academics through to mid-career and senior practitioners – enabling individuals and institutions to identify relevant opportunities with ease.

Alongside the database, the project develops and sustains professional learning communities of practice (PLCoPs) at institutional and national levels. Grounded in situated learning theory (Lave and Wenger, 1991), these communities provide academics with collaborative, contextually embedded spaces in which to reflect on and improve their teaching practice – moving beyond once-off workshops towards sustained, relationship-based professional growth.

The project also convenes regional Think Tank events which bring together academics, academic developers, teaching and learning specialists, and institutional leaders to interrogate evidence on CPL trends and share good practices across the sector. Findings from these events feed directly into writing retreats, where project team members produce peer-reviewed articles that contribute to the scholarly knowledge base on academic professional learning in South Africa.

Who Benefits

The primary beneficiaries are emerging and early career academics across all 26 public universities, who gain access to a coherent, navigable national resource. Academic developers, directors and heads of teaching and learning centres, and institutional leadership also benefit from the evidence and networks the project generates.

Contribution to the NFfEAUT

The CPL Project directly advances four of the six action imperatives of the National Framework for Enhancing Academics as University Teachers (NFfEAUT): enabling continuous professional development (Imperative 1); establishing and maintaining university teacher development structures (Imperative 2); promoting knowledge production and sharing about university teaching (Imperative 5); and developing expectations of academics in their role as university teachers (Imperative 6).

PROJECT 2

Developing the Field of Academic Development as a Profession

Project Lead: Prof Jo-Anne Vorster

Project Lead: Prof Jo-Anne Vorster, Centre for Higher Education Research, Teaching and Learning (CHERTL), Rhodes University

Partner Institutions: Cape Peninsula University of Technology • University of Johannesburg • Durban University of Technology • University of Venda • University of Fort Hare

Funding Period: April 2026 – March 2029

Overview

Academic Developers (ADs) – the professionals who work within teaching and learning centres and faculties to strengthen the teaching competence of university staff – are among the most important yet least visible actors in South African higher education. They sit at the intersection of institutional policy and classroom practice, supporting academics in developing the pedagogical skills that directly shape student learning. Yet the field of academic development in South Africa remains under-theorised, under-resourced, and insufficiently recognised as a distinct profession with its own body of knowledge, career pathways, and professional standards.

This project responds to that gap. Drawing directly on a 126-response survey of AD practitioners conducted during the first SAUT funding cycle (2021–2025), which revealed both the critical importance of the AD role and the structural constraints that limit its impact, the project sets out to generate new knowledge about AD practice and to translate that knowledge into concrete professional development resources for ADs at all career stages across the sector.

What the Project Does

The project works through two mutually reinforcing activities. The first involves the design and implementation of case studies of AD practice at selected institutions, led by contracted researchers and the project team. The case studies document innovative and effective staff development approaches used by experienced ADs, investigate how the professional identities and institutional contexts of senior ADs have shaped the field, and generate practical career development resources for practitioners. Data is triangulated with the survey findings from the first cycle, deepening and contextualising what those findings revealed. The theoretical lens of social realism (Archer, 1995; Maton, 2013) frames the inquiry, attending to how individual agency interacts with structural conditions to enable or constrain ADs’ professional contributions.

The second activity is the development and implementation of a structured mentoring programme for academic developers. This begins with a Veteran AD Workshop – a convening of experienced AD practitioners to inform the design of mentoring guidelines and resources – and culminates in a national three-day Mentor Development Workshop, bringing together one AD per institution from all 26 public universities. Participants leave equipped with the knowledge, tools, and relationships to establish and sustain mentoring arrangements between senior and emerging ADs at their own institutions. The programme is designed to complement existing postgraduate qualifications in academic development, including the PGDip(HE) for Academic Developers offered at Rhodes University and the University of Johannesburg.

Who Benefits

The project directly benefits Academic Developers across all career stages – novice, mid-career, and senior – at all 26 public universities. Directors and heads of teaching and learning centres, and institutional leaders responsible for staff development policies, also benefit from the career pathway resources and mentoring frameworks the project produces.

Contribution to the NFfEAUT

The project advances three NFfEAUT action imperatives: establishing and maintaining university teacher development structures (Imperative 2); promoting knowledge production and knowledge sharing about university teaching and learning (Imperative 5); and developing expectations of academics in their role as university teachers (Imperative 6).

PROJECT 3

University Teaching Leadership Development

Project Lead: Prof Kasturi Behari-Leak

Project Lead: Prof Kasturi Behari-Leak, Centre for Higher Education Development (CHED), University of Cape Town

Partner Institutions: Nelson Mandela University • University of Limpopo

Funding Period: April 2026 – March 2029

Overview

The quality of university teaching across an institution is shaped, in significant measure, by the leadership of those responsible for creating the conditions in which good teaching can thrive. Directors of Teaching and Learning (T&L) Centres occupy precisely that position: they lead professional development initiatives for academics, mediate between institutional management and academic staff, and are responsible for translating institutional commitments to teaching quality into practical, lived realities. Yet this critical leadership role has received inadequate attention in South African higher education policy and practice, and those who hold it – particularly at historically disadvantaged institutions – often do so without adequate preparation, peer networks, or structured support.

The University Teaching Leadership Development Project addresses this directly. Building on foundational empirical work from the first SAUT funding cycle, which mapped T&L development activities across all South African public universities and confirmed that Directors of T&L Centres frequently lack formal preparation for their leadership roles, this project offers a structured, evidence-based response – one designed not only to develop individual leadership capacity but to generate a lasting scholarly contribution to the field.

What the Project Does

The project unfolds across three phases. It begins with a comprehensive needs analysis, involving online interviews and focus group discussions with Directors of T&L Centres from all 26 public universities. Findings from the needs analysis inform the design of the coaching programme and produce a peer-reviewed article – ensuring that the project’s empirical foundations are shared with the broader higher education community from the outset.

The centrepiece of the project is a structured leadership coaching programme, grounded in practice-based theories of leadership (Carroll et al., 2008; Spillane, 2006) and delivered by national and international coaches across the three-year period. Coaching sessions are conducted virtually to ensure accessibility across all institutions. Participants simultaneously engage in facilitated online writing retreats, in which they develop auto-ethnographic accounts of their leadership growth and practice – giving reflective, scholarly voice to their experiences as T&L leaders in complex institutional contexts.

The project concludes with the production of a scholarly book of these auto-ethnographic accounts – a nationally significant resource on teaching and learning leadership in South African higher education, produced by and for those who live and practise it. A national dissemination symposium in Year 3 ensures that the insights generated reach beyond the immediate cohort of participants.

Throughout all phases, the project applies a deliberate equity lens, prioritising the participation of Directors from institutions that have not historically had access to leadership development resources – ensuring that the gains of the project are felt where they are most needed.

Who Benefits

Directors of Teaching and Learning Centres at all 26 public universities are the primary beneficiaries, with deliberate focus on those from historically disadvantaged institutions. Middle managers who support T&L development, future T&L leaders who will use the scholarly book as a resource, and the broader higher education sector – through peer-reviewed publications and the national dissemination symposium – also benefit.

Contribution to the NFfEAUT

The project directly advances two NFfEAUT action imperatives: advancing university teaching through leadership development (Imperative 4) and promoting knowledge production and knowledge sharing about university teaching and learning (Imperative 5).