Professor Carolina Koornhof, Executive Director: Finance and Business Initiatives at UP, offers an outline of just some of the “reimagining” initiatives that are underway within her portfolio.

With the new five-year strategic plan, we have been invited to reimagine the University of Pretoria (UP). What an exciting challenge and wonderful opportunity to reflect on who we are, where we are and where we are going.

The plan addresses a wide range of strategic goals and outcomes that are focused on our main business as a university: teaching and learning, research and community engagement. While our five strategic goals of better student access and success, improving our research and international profile, transformation, sustainability, and social impact remain, it is an opportunity to reflect on what we do, prioritise, action and implement.

However, even the best strategic plan is useless if it is not owned, lived and implemented by everyone. Herein lies the challenge to the UP community: is it business as usual, or are we accepting the challenge to reimagine the University? And what precisely does “reimagining” mean for the respective faculties, departments, divisions or units?

In my current portfolio, I am responsible for the finances, campus companies, sport, and retirement funds. To reflect on and unpack the meaning and implications of reimagining, I met with the directors and deputy directors reporting to me. It was an energising exercise to unpack the strategic plan and consider how we will reimagine our departments, how we will become more agile and flexible, and provide innovative solutions and excellent client support to a growing number of stakeholders, both inside and outside the University. I have also encouraged the directors who report to me to have similar discussions within their departments as we cascade the strategic plan to all staff members.

In our deliberations, we concluded that we need a different mindset, attitude and even a change of heart to really do justice to the changes called for in the successful implementation of this ambitious plan. Often, changes may take place not in what we do, but in how they are made. For example, do we remain compliance-based and find only problems and create rules, or do we become more flexible, client-focused and proactive, and offer innovative solutions, albeit within the parameters set by legislation and policies?

Financial Sustainability Plan

In the Department of Finance, we are reviewing (and reimagining) the Financial Sustainability Plan that was approved by the UP Council in June 2019. Our environment has changed substantially since then, given the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the budget cuts experienced by the national Department of Higher Education and Training, as well as the challenges posed by National Student Financial Aid Scheme funding. To ensure that the University is future-fit for purpose, we are working with the Department of Institutional Planning to reconceive the financial sustainability of UP and its shape and size in terms of staff and student composition.

Automating processes

The Department of Finance is also at the forefront of leveraging technology to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of processes. It is envisaged that, through staff training and the automation of processes afforded by the PeopleSoft system, progressively fewer human interventions may be required in the areas of compliance and accountability, and more emphasis could be placed on financial sustainability and advice. This would have a substantial impact on the University’s long-term financial position, which has become a priority due to recent events beyond UP’s control.

Examples of process automation include:

• Building customised functionality within the PeopleSoft system to complete bank reconciliations, which were previously done manually.
• In 2023, we will be expanding online procurement support, and a procurement catalogue of suppliers will be available online soon.
• The Department of Finance will complete the replacement of the Onderstepoort Veterinary Academic Hospital’s old UVIS reporting system with the Vetview system, which will integrate with PeopleSoft and significantly improve the hospital’s patient and inventory systems, among others.
• We are investigating the implementation of software that will automatically record invoices from suppliers, thereby freeing up valuable resources that can be spent on data analysis to provide insight into current operations.

Student debt

The growing amount of unpaid student debt at the University remains a serious risk. While the increase is understandable in light of the pandemic and the impact it had on people’s lives, livelihoods and the economy, it is necessary for the Department of Finance to introduce new interventions. This is to ensure that while we are recovering outstanding debt more successfully, we are also providing more bursaries and loans to deserving students in order to support student access and success.

TuksSport

TuksSport has become known as a sporting powerhouse and we are especially proud of the exceptional performance of our UP student-athletes at the recent 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England. While we celebrate exceptional sporting prowess at TuksSport, we also celebrate exceptional academic performance: at the autumn graduation ceremonies in April this year, 214 TuksSport student-athletes received their qualifications. Some of our top-performing athletes also hold multiple degrees. Next year, the concept of student-athletes (not athlete-students) will be developed further by means of additional academic support for these individuals.

However, elite sporting performance is only half the story of the reimagining of TuksSport. The other pillar involves encouraging and supporting staff and student wellness and transformation through greater participation in sport and wellness activities. TuksSport aims to work with partners to encourage sport participation and make it more accessible for all by, among others, using electronic platforms for exercise and wellness monitoring. We believe that prevention is better than the cure and that, through partnering with the Departments of Student Affairs and Residences, and Human Resources, TuksSport can ensure that our wonderful UP sport facilities are made more available and accessible for staff and students. We plan to contribute to reversing the spike in mental and physical illness by driving health-conscious campus initiatives.

Professional services

The plans of Professional Service Departments are being developed for 2023.