Community engagement praxis at the University of South Africa

Abstract

Praxis: this is a concept that depicts how policy is disaggregated into practice. In many instances one finds huge gaps in this area. With regard to community engagement at the University of South Africa (Unisa) in South Africa, there was a need to investigate the extent to which policies on community engagement (specially the 2008 Community Engagement and Outreach Policy) filtered down into staff’s key performance area (KPA) agreements and job adverts. The major findings were that there is a gap in terms of how community engagement has been infused into academic staff KPA agreements that still emphasise teaching as well as research. In terms of time allocation, these areas take up on average 80 per cent of academic staff time annually for junior lecturer to full professor grades, whilst community engagement takes up on average 10 per cent for senior lecturer to full professor grades and about seven and a half per cent for lecturer and junior lecturer grades. Surprisingly, the KPA agreements for junior lecturers and lecturers allow a zero per cent time allocation to community engagement. In addition, the appointment and promotion criteria for professors and associate professors demand excellence in teaching and learning as well as research. Community engagement for non-academic staff is not well defined and this responsibility is left to be shared between the staff member and their line managers for inclusion in the KPA agreements that must be based on the job descriptions. A review of generic as well as specific job descriptions as stipulated in adverts retrieved confirmed the absence of or minimal reference to community engagement. However, the revised Community Engagement and Outreach Policy of 2013 aims to address some of the gaps cited, bearing in mind that one of the guiding principles acknowledges Unisa as an Open and Distance Learning (ODL) institution.