Associate Professor/Professor and Academic Head of Department at University of the Free State

Duties and responsibilities:  

• Provide formal teaching for undergraduate as well as post-graduate programmes. 
• Act as a supervisor for postgraduate students. 
• Ensure active involvement in research. 
• Active involvement in curriculum development relating to Social Sciences Education and/or Commerce Education. 
• As an Academic Head of Department (AHD): Continuous planning and execution of teaching and research strategies, general organising and coordinating of administrative duties, mentoring and motivating staff, managing finances (e.g. annual budgeting, allocation of funds) of the department.  
• Additional duties applicable to the Academic Head of Department:
• Provide academic leadership by creating and executing strategies to establish the department as a leader in the discipline vis-a-vis competing international entities.
• Responsible for directing the academic debate in the department.
• Responsible for influencing the department's overall climate and culture.
• Responsible for energising everybody in the department and beyond.
• Responsible for shaping the future of the department.
• Contribute to the overall leadership in the faculty.
• Responsible for frequent and continuous planning and execution of plans, general organising and coordinating of staff, students and activities; mentoring and motivating staff.
• Create an atmosphere of consensus among staff.
• Create effective internal and external communication.
• Participate and be involved actively in faculty management structures, attend meetings, lead project teams, represent the department and faculty, and fulfil the roles of liaison officer and marketer, when necessary.
• Participate and be involved actively in applicable UFS management structures, e.g. Senate.
• Initiate, formulate and implement a visionary academic strategy for the department that is aligned with and supportive of the guiding strategic documents of the UFS and faculty.
• Ensure the provision of top-quality, research-informed facilitation of learning at all levels of teaching in the department.
• Ensure relevance of content, material and presentation in all modules.
• Ensure the enhancement of student experiences and their continuous engagement in academic debates.
• Ensure that adequate rules and regulations are in place to optimally deliver high-quality teaching and learning programmes on both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
• Adhere to all the rules and regulations of the UFS, faculty and department.
• Ensure quality and timely feedback on student work.
• Ensure proper and quality-driven academic advice and support to all under- and postgraduate students in the department.
• Ensure the revisiting and development of fresh learning programmes that will help to position the department as a leader in the fraternity.
• Create and maintain a visionary research strategy for the department.
• Create and maintain an environment that encourages research, leading to strong and active research habits and a culture of inquiry.
• Ensure that every academic staff member is engaged in quality-driven and discipline-specific research.
• Ensure that postgraduate students are recruited to broaden the research base of the department and ethical requirements are met.
• Guide and support senior academics towards acquiring NRF ratings.
• Ensure active engagement with the faculty research committee and the UFS Directorate of Research Development in order to ensure sustainable financial support for departmental research initiatives.
• Plan and implement a fair and reasonable dispensation regarding the workload of staff members in the department.
• Plan and implement a clear and reasonable career path for every staff member in the department, taking account of the strategic plans of the University, faculty and department.
• Implement appropriate mentoring interventions where and whenever it is needed.
• Manage staff performance in accordance with existing university policies and procedures.
• Responsible for recruitment and selection of scholars in the case of vacancies and/or specific strategic needs, whenever strategic repositioning requires expansion of academic endeavours.
• Create and maintain a scholarship-friendly environment in the department.
• Plan and oversee effective and relevant staff development.
• Responsible for financial management culminating annual budgeting, financial planning, allocation of funds and financial control.
• Adhere to the UFS's financial policies and procedures.
• Encourage and actively support academic staff members to apply for external research and other grants.

Inherent requirements

Associate Professor:

• A relevant Doctoral degree on NQF Level 10 in Education with specialisation that has relevance to the Department of Social Sciences Education and/or Commerce Education (e.g. History Education, Geography Education, Social Sciences Education, Religion Studies Education, Sociology of Education, Economics Education, Accounting Education and Business Studies Education). 
• Proven experience in research and/or teaching and learning management and capacity building. 
• Experience as external examiner for postgraduate students. 
• Proven experience in the presentation of research papers at national and international conferences, where there is evidence of peer review of papers. 
• Act as an editorial board member and/or reviewer of high-quality national scholarly journals. 
• Proven national recognition for specialist expertise and research leadership in a specific scientific area of scholarship. 
• An NRF rating or potential for rating. 
• Proven experience in the supervision of graduated master’s and/or doctoral students. 
• A proven research record of relevant publications in accredited national and international journals. 
• Serve as a member of a national scholarly society, OR a national committee or agency concerned with research at higher education levels, OR show evidence of service as an active member of an international equivalent. 
• Proven experience in curriculum and/or programme development. 
• Evidence of attracting research and/or training grants in the past 5-years. 
• Proven experience in co-leading one or more engaged scholarship projects. 

Professor:

• A relevant Doctoral degree on NQF Level 10 in Education with specialisation that has relevance to the Department of Social Sciences Education and/or Commerce Education (e.g. History Education, Geography Education, Social Sciences Education, Religion Studies Education, Sociology of Education, Economics Education, Accounting Education and Business Studies Education). 
• Proven experience in research and/or teaching and learning management and capacity building. 
• Experience as external examiner for postgraduate Master’s and/or Doctoral students. 
• Proven experience in the presentation of research papers at national and international conferences, where there is evidence of peer review of papers. 
• Act as an editorial member and/or reviewer of high quality national scholarly journals. 
• Proven international recognition for specialist expertise and research leadership in a specific scientific area of scholarship (e.g., regularly serves as a reviewer for international/ISl/IBSS journals). 
• An NRF rating or potential for rating. 
• Demonstrated successful supervision of graduated master's and preferably doctoral students. 
• Proven experience in delivering keynote addresses at national scholarly conferences. 
• Serve as a member of a national scholarly society, OR a national committee or agency concerned with research at higher education levels, OR show evidence of service as an active member of an international equivalent. 
• Proven experience in curriculum and/or programme development. 
• Evidence of attracting external research and/or training grants in the past 5-years. 
• Proven experience in leading one or more engaged scholarship projects. 

Recommendations:

• Possession of a formal teaching qualification (e.g., Diploma in Education, Postgraduate Certificate in Education or Bachelor of Education degree or equivalent) is a strong recommendation (attach if applicable). 
• Experience in community engagement. 
• Experience in grant writing and/or preparing research funding applications.