Tshwane University of Technology: Digital Transformation

Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) is on a mission to ensure that all students graduate with relevant, employable skills. To help bridge the gap between university and industry, the institution has pledged to adapt curriculums to ensure they reflect what industry wants and needs – now and in the future. It has recently launched the Institute for the Future of Work (IFoW) to make this happen.

Here we speak to Bhekisipho Twala, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Digital Transformation) and Professor in Artificial Intelligence & Data Science at TUT to understand the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

How is TUT embracing digital transformation?

Firstly, we’re the only African university with a digital transformation portfolio. We recognise that, to empower the next generation, we need to have the knowledge and teaching capabilities within TUT to equip our students with the skills they need to enter a digital workplace.

So, it’s about having the right staff and supporting them with the right technology. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, we’ve been working hard to transform our university using the technologies that we have available – turning it into a digital first / smart campus. Our Learning Management System (LMS) has been critical for us, for example. We’ve been able to monitor assessment and engagement more effectively, whether students are on or off campus. Technology has also enabled our teachers to come up with new ideas on the most effective ways to teach and they have embraced the use of apps and more interactive, blended learning.

Alongside learning technologies, we have also been transforming our back-office infrastructure. A lot of our processes are still done manually, but we are constantly bringing in initiatives that will benefit the whole institution – freeing HR teams up from laborious admin tasks, for example.

What’s holding you back?

In essence, it’s infrastructure, access and skills.

We’d love to fully implement digital transformation but it’s hard. Infrastructure is still an Achilles heel for South Africa. We have the technology available, but we don’t always have the infrastructure to support it. Our 5G isn’t up to First World standard, for instance, and our rural students struggle for access – either due to a lack of connectivity or because they simply can’t afford it.

Money’s an issue across the board. Universities can’t afford to buy every student a laptop – and that’s making it difficult to achieve equity.

We also have a skills challenge. Digital transformation requires computing and coding skills that are still lacking in Africa. The sector needs to recruit more highly skilled lecturers. We can all potentially offer AI degrees, but do we have the right people to teach them?

What do you see as the key opportunities for students and staff?

Ultimately, we can’t use the challenges above as an excuse. There are things that we can do right now if we use what we have available to us. We’ve got 4G, we have some excellent lecturers – we need to make the best of that.

For us, it’s about making sure that TUT is seen as the most digitally advanced university in South Africa. Our students are keen to embrace interactive learning and develop new skills such as coding, and we are actively encouraging that. I’d also argue that every single student should take a digital analytics course – regardless of the degree that they’re studying for. Those skills have become vital in almost every workplace.

That’s why we need to include industry in the conversation more – to understand the skills that are needed right now and in the future. It’s our role as educators to be preparing and upskilling students. We want our graduates to be able to combine practice and theory – so they’re ready to apply what they’ve learned in a working environment.

We’re working on creating innovation hubs, with companies such as IBM and Huawei, for example, to give our students opportunities to work on more practical, workplace-based projects.

It’s a great time of change for the sector. Yes, we have some challenges – many of which are out of our control. But everyone’s excited about what’s possible. Our focus now is to ensure that everyone – including senior management, staff and students – feels part of the next stage in our digital transformation journey.

This extended interview was conducted as part of the research for our whitepaper, ‘Harnessing Digitisation to Unlock Student Success in South Africa’. Read more from this series on our content hub or download the whitepaper to explore how universities can embrace digitisation to unlock student success.

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