Associate Professor/Professor (permanent) and Academic Head of Department (contract appointment: 5 years) (Job ID: 5570) at University of the Free State

Duties and responsibilities: 

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.

Professor

• Provide leadership in pursuit of the department and faculty strategic plan with regard to research, teaching, engaged scholarship and leadership and administration.
• Provide supervision to postgraduate students, namely Honours, Master's and PhD students.
• Lecture Business Management, Venture Creation, Entrepreneurship, and Analytical Decision-Making at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
• Conduct high-quality research and publish in accredited international and national journals and deliver quality research outputs in line with the research strategy of the faculty.
• Maintain a research output pipeline to meet the yearly required supervision and publication of research output units.
• Apply for funding in (multidisciplinary) research projects.
• Act as a mentor to colleagues within the department and faculty at large.
• Attend and speak at national and international conferences, research colloquia, workshops and seminars in order to enhance research and disciplinary knowledge.
• Identify opportunities and apply for external research funding, whether as an individual or in collaboration with colleagues 
• Assist in disseminating the work associated with research projects in the media and through the newsletter and website.
• Participate in community activities such as mentorship and provide training and short courses in the areas of specialisation.
• Perform academic administration pertaining to undergraduate and postgraduate subjects – this may include typing, setting and marking of all question papers and memorandums, recording of marks and handling of student complaints.
• Serve as a member of various academic committees and perform any other tasks allocated by the Dean and head of the department.
• Develop and maintain strong collaborative relationships with relevant research, civil society, government, industry and professional organisations, nationally and internationally.

Associate Professor

• Provide leadership in pursuit of the department and faculty strategic plan with regard to research, teaching, engaged scholarship and leadership and administration.
• Provide supervision to postgraduate students, namely Honours, Master's and PhD students.
• Lecture Business Management, Venture Creation, Entrepreneurship, and Analytical Decision-Making at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
• Conduct high-quality research and publish in accredited journals and deliver quality research outputs in line with the research strategy of the faculty.
• Attend and speak at conferences, research colloquia, workshops and seminars in order to enhance research and disciplinary knowledge.
• Identify opportunities and apply for external research funding, whether as an individual or in collaboration with colleagues 
• Assist in disseminating the work associated with research projects in the media and through the newsletter and website.
• Participate in community activities such as mentorship and provide training and short courses in the areas of specialisation.
• Perform academic administration pertaining to undergraduate and postgraduate subjects – this may include typing, setting and marking of all question papers and memorandums, recording of marks and handling of student complaints.
• Serve as a member of various academic committees and perform any other tasks allocated by the Dean and head of the department.
• Develop and maintain strong collaborative relationships with relevant research, civil society, government, industry and professional organisations.

Inherent requirements:

Associate Professor

• PhD on NQF Level 10 with specialisation in Business Management.
• Proven experience in presenting Business Management, Venture Creation, Entrepreneurship, and Analytical Decision-Making at the undergraduate and postgraduate level.
• Proven skills in data analysis using IBM SPSS, AMOS, PLS.
• Experience as external examiner for postgraduate students.
• Proven experience in the presentation of research papers at national conferences, where there is evidence of peer review of papers.
• Acted as an editorial board member 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 of C3 or equivalent status.
• A proven research record of relevant publications in national and international accredited journals
• Proven experience in the supervision of graduated master’s degree students.
• A proven research record of relevant publications in national and international accredited journals. 
• Served as a member of a national scholarly society OR a national committee or agency concerned with research at higher education levels OR showed evidence of service as an active member of an international equivalent.

Professor

• PhD on NQF Level 10 with specialisation in Business Management.
• Proven experience in presenting Business Management, Venture Creation, Entrepreneurship, and Analytical Decision-Making at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
• Proven skills in data analysis using IBM SPSS, AMOS, PLS.
• Experience as external examiner for master’s-degree and doctoral students.
• Acted as editorial board member of high-quality international/ISI/IBSS journals.
• Proven international recognition for specialist expertise and research leadership in a particular area of academic scholarship (for example, regularly serves as a reviewer for international/ISI/IBSS journals).
• An NRF rating of C1 or C2 or equivalent status.
• Demonstrated successful supervision of graduated master’s-degree and preferably graduated doctoral students.
• Proven experience in delivering keynote addresses at national scholarly conferences.
• Served as a member of an international scholarly society OR an international committee or agency concerned with research at higher-education levels.

Recommendations:

• Proven lecturing experience in the Higher Education environment.
• Proven experience in a leadership role within a department, research centre, and/or institute.
• Proficiency in computer skills, eg, MS word, excel, PowerPoint.
• Proven skills in data analysis using IBM SPSS, AMOS, PLS.
• Good command of the English language.
• Member of a or registration at a professional body 
• Experience as a departmental leader/ manager in a higher education environment.