Current Vacancies at University of the Witwatersrand

Purpose:

• To serve as the Senior Legal Officer in support of the work of the GEO.  This includes receiving and investigating complaints lodged with the GEO, compiling investigative reports, liaising with complainants and accused individuals and coordinating the Office’s disciplinary inquiries in line with the University’s policy on gender related misconduct.

Key responsibilities include the following:

• Receiving and investigating complaints of sexual/gender violence, including assault, bullying, harassment, discrimination and other gendered harms.
• Conducting investigations and producing investigation reports into complaints received at the GEO.
• Coordinating and managing disciplinary inquiries arising within the office.
• Engaging, interpreting and being tuned into processes and policies, and supporting the provision of effective solutions.
• Providing a supportive, understanding and professional service to staff and students in the service of the office.
• Building good relationships with other units/offices within the University, especially where their work intersects with that of the office. 
• Providing support for the preventative/advocacy work of the office, and extending and supporting platforms for engaging staff and students.

Brief Description        
Requirements

• A law degree or equivalent diploma
• At least 3-5 years working experience
• An in-depth understanding of gendered power relations, broader gender dynamics and institutional patriarchy
• Exceptional investigative skills
• Exceptional and advanced analytical and reporting skills
• Excellent and empathetic communication skills
• Ability to multi-task, think outside of the box, and be proactive
• Must have good people skills and be a team player who is willing to learn together with others
• Exceptional attention to detail and accuracy
• Highly productive, work well under pressure and meet deadlines
• Willingness to work overtime when required

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The School of Animal, Plant & Environmental Sciences is a large research and teaching unit focusing on a diversity of topics in the Life Sciences, including Ecology, Conservation, Plant Sciences and Zoology. The leadership of this vibrant School, with its diverse young staff, offers the incumbent an opportunity to drive forward a new vision for Biology in South Africa. This vision should include innovations in teaching and research across a wide range of topics to meet the needs of a changing world. The Head of School will be expected to provide academic vision and leadership, as well as managerial coordination of the various units and programmes required to maintain and build the school’s position of academic excellence in research, teaching, and community engagement. The HoS must have academic and/or professional standing to foster the respect and confidence of the members of the school and possess high-level leadership skills to enact a shared strategic vision for the school. Teaching courses at an appropriate level during the term of office is required, and the Head must continue with research activities and postgraduate student supervision.

The Head of School reports to the Dean of Science and must be at the Associate Professor level or above. The Head is responsible for the administration of the school. This includes coordinating academic activities in teaching, research, postgraduate training, and human resource activities in recruitment and management, and financial and infrastructure resource management. The successful candidate will be appointed as Head of School for a fixed term of five years (with the possibility of a second term) and will be eligible for a position in the school at the appropriate academic rank, as a member of the academic staff, after the period served as Head. The Head of School is a member of the Faculty Executive, chaired by the Dean of Science, and contributes to the overall strategic and operational management of the Faculty of Science. The Head should be visible and active in the affairs of the Faculty and the University.

Brief Description        
QUALIFICATIONS AND REQUIREMENTS:

• A PhD in an appropriate field that is relevant to the school, and an accomplished research record with postgraduate training and teaching experience, together with administration experience preferably within a university environment.

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Brief Description        
The Head of School must hold an appointment at a minimum level of Associate Professor, or equivalent, at the time of applying. The Head is responsible for the administration of the School. This includes coordinating academic activities in teaching, research and postgraduate training, and human resource activities in recruitment and management, and financial and infrastructure resource management. The successful candidate will be appointed for a fixed term of five years (with the possibility of a second term) and will be eligible for a position in the School at the appropriate academic rank, as a member of the academic staff, after the period served as Head. The Head of School reports to the Dean of Science and is a member of the Faculty Executive, chaired by the Dean of Science, and contributes to the overall strategic and operational management of the Faculty of Science. The Head should be visible and active in the affairs of the Faculty and the University.

QUALIFICATIONS AND REQUIREMENTS:

• A PhD in an appropriate field that is relevant to the School, and an accomplished research record with postgraduate training and teaching experience, together with administration experience preferably within a university environment.

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Key Purpose:

• The Senior Communications Officer will play a central role in a key objective of the organisation: to deliver cutting edge academic research and to make it available and accessible to a broad audience. The Senior Communications Officer will develop the GCRO’s internal and external communications strategy to build its reputation for research that is relevant both to government and other researchers. The Officer will manage communications functions on research and the activities, vision, values and mission of the organisation. This role will  include supporting the implementation of multimedia communication, science writing, social media and visual storytelling. The Senior Communications Officer will liaise with the GCRO partner organisations’ communications teams to ensure collaboration and the boosting of messaging.

Key roles:

• The Senior Communications Officer will be a highly motivated and multi-skilled professional who will:
• Develop and implement a comprehensive GCRO communications and research dissemination strategy.
• Oversee and manage the GCRO website and its regular updating.
• Oversee and manage the GCRO’s social media channels.
• Oversee and manage dissemination mailshots for GCRO’s outputs.
• Oversee and manage the news section of the website, and the regular publication of newsletters.
• To facilitate science writing to ensure that technical academic research can be disseminated in an accessible form to a general audience.
• Develop marketing materials and relevant communications approaches for GCRO partners locally and internationally.
• Undertake media management and the development and maintenance of traditional and social media partners for GCRO’s activities and key events.
• Oversee all logistics and media management for GCRO events.
• Manage effective stakeholder engagement through the GCRO website subscriptions, hosting of delegations, and work in collaboration with a range of audiences and research partners, locally and internationally, in pursuit of the GCRO communications and research dissemination strategy objectives.
• Participate in the effective dissemination of the GCRO’s research outputs to stakeholders and society at large, including visualisations (data visualisation, visual storytelling, GIS and mapping), and means to boost the GCRO brand and messaging on social media.
• Participate in the GCRO production management team, and develop and manage a panel of diverse production experts including graphic design, editing, typesetting, etc.
• Manage training for the GCRO researchers on media messaging and interviews, ensuring the GCRO brand and key messaging is amplified.
• Explore and establish more opportunities for re-publication of GCRO’s shorter and more visual outputs in mainstream media.
• Identify opportunities for opinion pieces in GCRO’s forthcoming outputs and support researchers with the publication of opinion pieces, by building stronger relationships with journalists and increasing the opportunities.
• Building and maintaining measurements of impact for all GCRO communications and dissemination, including media monitoring.

We are looking for (selection criteria):

• Applicants with at least 5 years experience in organisational communications and/or science communication and a relevant degree qualification (NQF level 7).
• Applicants with experience in translating research into public policy and publicly accessible documents.
• Academic and/or policy related communication experience will be an advantage.
• Ability to engage at a high level with a wide range of academic, research, government and civil society stakeholders.
• Excellent writing, proof-reading and editing skills in English for both scientific and popular audiences.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Demonstrable good network in the media community and online publication skills.
• Strong organisational skills and ability to produce under a heavy workload with competing priorities.

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The Senior Director Academic Affairs is responsible for the strategic management and operational oversight at institutional level in the areas of university teaching, student learning and success and quality. The incumbent will have direct responsibility for the Head: Centre for Learning, Teaching and Development (CLTD), Head: Quality and Academic Planning Office (QAPO), Head: Student Academic Support, Head: Wits Writing Programme.                    

• The Senior Director is responsible for keeping abreast of international trends and issues related to teaching and student learning in higher education and identifying how they can be addressed in the Wits context. This includes catalysing institutional discussions and initiatives related to contemporary issues in higher education, for example, academic integrity, and the use of Artificial Intelligence in assessment.

We expect a proven ability in the following key performance areas:

• Provide strategic and operational leadership in teaching and assessment, student learning and success, and quality.
• Manage staff and oversee budgets within the portfolio.
• Provide oversight of communication and activities with external stakeholders whose work impacts on the position.
• Provide oversight of external grants related to the position.
• Maintain strong communication with internal stakeholders whose work impacts on the position.

Requirements: 

• The successful candidate must therefore be an outstanding academic with an established research record that enables one to meet the requirements for professorial appointment at the University. Proven experience in a senior management role and at least ten years work related experience in higher education. Extensive knowledge of scholarship and practice pertaining to university teaching and student learning. A thorough knowledge of affordances of and opportunities to integrate appropriate technology into educational provision and of key principles and practices of internal and external quality assurance in higher education.

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    Description:

• The School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics undertakes high quality research in a wide variety of areas and is home to several National Research Foundation (NRF) rated scientists.
• In the domain of Computer Science, the School’s main research areas include machine learning, big data analytics, computer vision, high-performance computing, robotics, scientific computing, formal languages and automata, natural language processing, cyber security and logic.
• We seek applicants with experience in research, tertiary teaching and postgraduate supervision in the areas of data science, computational statistics, applied and theoretical machine learning, cyber security, and large-scale computing.

Qualifications:

• Applicants must hold a doctorate in Computer Science or related fields and have evidence of teaching experience at a tertiary institution. Individuals with research interests in machine learning, data science, big data analytics or cyber security will be preferred.
• Furthermore, the applicant must have evidence of research and publications in recognized conferences, journals and/or scholarly books. Further, evidence of postgraduate supervision is necessary, while evidence of academic citizenship (University administration) and a South African NRF rating are advantageous (if available).
• For Associate Professor, a strong evidence of research outputs, evidence of supervision of postgraduate students and five–year teaching experience at a tertiary level is necessary. 

Duties:

• The successful applicant will be expected to teach machine learning and big data or cyber security related courses, at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, supervise and/or co-supervise postgraduate students, participate in academic administration and develop a productive research programme