Pursuing academic excellence

What was required to produce global leaders ten years ago is not necessarily the same as what is required to nurture global leaders today or in the future. The academic experience that we provide at Wits must equip our graduates with the ability to think independently and critically based on reason and logic. We also need to be agile in our response to evolving pedagogies and disciplines and have a seamless approach to lifelong learning.

We commit to:

• Nurturing critical thought, robust reasoning and debate based on factual foundations;
• Instilling in our graduates a sense of social responsibility;
• Providing our students with a multidisciplinary, flexible academic environment; and
• Expanding our academic offering to provide other forms of bespoke teaching and training that allow for lifelong learning opportunities.

The university is the site of the production, generation, and translation of knowledge. Wits must advance the pursuit of fundamental thought and reason as this is what will change the world.

We commit to:

• Creating an environment that allows for the pursuit of knowledge that will have a profound impact on the world and the potential for Nobel Prize-winning work; and
• Translating fundamental knowledge into technological innovation that will spawn companies to change the world.

Wits needs to leverage the opportunities with which our specific context provides us to address the big questions and challenges of the 21st Century, but at a global level. Building on the solid foundation of its historical contributions such as was done in the field of HIV and more recently Wits' role in addressing the pandemic ,Wits has illustrated that it has the expertise and, in some cases, contextual advantage which will allow for a new model of interdisciplinary research work to be conducted. The research areas that require specific focus, in the context of the challenges that impact the society we operate in, include:

• Social justice and addressing inequality;
• Climate sustainability;
• Advancing inclusive public health;
• Technologies for societal advancement; and
• The future of the economy and work.

We commit to:

• Leveraging our research and using innovative thinking to tackle future global challenges using the Global South perspective;
• Developing multidisciplinary research teams that address global challenges; and
• Pursuing research endeavours that involve national, continental, and international collaborations aligned with our strategic goals.

Africa needs to produce its own scholars who understand and can leverage the local context to contribute and participate meaningfully in the global academy. In that regard, postgraduate study is a fundamental aspect of the research-intensive university as it both contributes knowledge to the global academy and produces the next generation of leaders – for society, industry, and the academy. Wits recognises this need to build the academy of the future for South Africa, the continent, and the world.

We commit to:

• Developing a culture of research and innovation in both our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes;
• Investing in becoming the leading postdoctoral hub on the continent;
• Motivating and investing in people to be research active and innovative; and
• Expanding research leadership opportunities for both professional and academic staff.

The knowledge we produce within our University is capable of influencing what happens in society if it is channelled appropriately. We must ensure the translation of that knowledge into practice by building the capacity and capability of our academics and researchers to take their research beyond the academy, whether it be through policy intervention or commercialisation.

We commit to:

• Encouraging academics to use innovative and extraordinary ways to create and fund impactful research endeavours;
• Ensuring that our knowledge economy translates into novel and purposeful solutions; and
• Creating the opportunities and processes to transform research findings into commercial opportunities.