The Dean of the Faculty of Education acted as host for 26 early career academics who were invited to attend a writing retreat at Kievitz Kroon from 19–22 July 2022. The event was planned to demonstrate the Faculty’s commitment to the career development of staff by assisting academics to realise their career aspirations. The aim of the workshop was to encourage and support the participants to work on and complete the research papers they were working on.

Addressing the academics, the Dean of the Faculty of Education, Prof Chika Sehoole, indicated that publication comes with dedication, sacrifice and pain. He explained that the writing retreat was an investment made in them to expose them to the art and skill of writing from draft stage to publishing and enable them to produce a publishable article in three days. He added: ‘My aim is as the Dean of this Faculty is to ensure that every one of you is promoted: lectures to senior lectures, senior lectures to associate professors, and associate professors to full professors.’

During the three days there was some level of anxiety as the academics worked tirelessly trying to meet the Dean’s expectation. The assistance of the invited professors who provided mentorship to the early academics helped to calm their nerves and gave them the courage they needed to believe that it was indeed possible to achieve such a milestone. The mentors included Profs Johan Beckmann, Funke Omidire, Rinelle Evans and Ugorji Ogbonnaya.