Effective academic liaison: An evaluation

Abstract

In South Africa the impact of all training and development initiatives are being assessed with reference to the extent to which they promote overall performance and the achievement of the policy goals and priorities of the current African National Congress led government. In this way a form of macro organising and coordination of all learning and acquired knowledge and skills manifests and becomes an ongoing and integral part of the public service transformation and development process of this developing country. In the light of the above mentioned, UNISA as a whole and the Department of Public Administration and Management in particular had to revisit its policy on macro organisational aspects such as the nature of the ever increasing competition in the tertiary distance teaching environment, the range, variety and quality of its products and the facilitation and rendering of an improved tertiary distance teaching service by means of among others, more effective market research, communication, coordination and service rendering to the distance learning students of South Africa. In this article the typical nature of the intra and inter academic liaison regarding the Department of Public Administration and Management at UNISA will be highlighted and an attempt will be made to come up with some realistic and easy achievable methods to influence the nature of academic liaison in a more positive sense. It is part of UNISA's and especially the Department's responsibility to fulfil a leading stakeholder's role on the terrain of public administration and management within the developing public service and public sector of South Africa. This can be brought about by pursuing, accomplishing, installing, updating and extending a wide variety of effective and significant ways of academic liaison.