Lecturer/Senior Lecturer - Community Engagement at Rhodes University

Main Objectives

• All academics are responsible for disseminating knowledge (teaching and learning), creating knowledge (research), engaging in community engagement, and recognising differences in how these responsibilities are executed across the various Departments and Faculties. 
• Academics are also expected to assume administrative, management, and/or leadership duties at the departmental, Faculty, and/or University level and contribute to their profession.

For this role, the incumbent is expected to provide academic leadership within the teaching-research-community engagement nexus. There are three main objectives listed below.

The first is to work with Academics and Academic Departments to:

• Enhance the quality of institutional external engagement with communities and university partners through Community-Based Participatory Research.
• Accelerate the impact and quality of Engaged Research (ER) initiatives and projects run by academics and departments at Rhodes University.
• Build meaningful relationships with community partner organisations in Makhanda, assisting in brokering strategic partnerships between the community and the university
• Develop and establish an Engaged Research course for students, staff at Rhodes University and local community partner organisations.
• Support researchers and lecturers in developing innovative engagement strategies.
• Implement mechanisms to capture evidence of initiatives, impact, and quality of engaged research initiatives.
• Establish monitoring and evaluation (M&E) support strategies for ER and reporting on ER at RU.
• Management and promotion of the Knowledge for Change (K4C) initiative.
• The second main objective is to make critical and original contributions to CE scholarship at local, national and international levels by leading the RUCE Editorial Team of the African Journal of Higher Education Community engagement and generating community engagement knowledge by publishing articles for newspapers and pamphlets, writing scholarly papers for accredited/peer-reviewed academic journals, and presenting research at conferences.
• The third main objective is coordinating a CE programme, theorising and promoting a scholarly, asset-based approach to community engagement at Rhodes University. 
• Participate in the strategic management and oversight of the program's development, implementation, and M&E systems.

The Requirement

Lecturer

• Master's in a relevant discipline, preferably Humanities or Social Science (must be prepared to register for a PhD)
• Experience in Community Development (CD) and Community Engagement (CE) (partnership development, Service Learning, Volunteerism and Engaged Research)
• Tutoring, facilitation, or conference presentation experience required. No teaching experience is required.
• Experience in conducting Community-Based Participatory Research.  Ability to teach diverse groups in the University and the broader community  
• No research supervision is required.
• Some administrative experience, albeit in informal contexts (e.g., student or sports clubs), and work experience. 

Senior Lecturer

• At least a PhD in a relevant discipline, preferably Humanities or Social Science.
• Experience in CD and CE (partnership development, Service Learning, Volunteerism, and Engaged Research)
• Teaching experience at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels is required.
• Experience in conducting Community-Based Participatory Research.
• Research supervision at the level of at least a Master's degree is required.
• Emerging national profile in the discipline
• Track record of administration, management, and/or leadership roles (leadership roles may be informal

Closing Date 23 October 2026