HIGHER EDUCATION CONTEXT COMPETENCIES

At the University of Johannesburg, the role of an academic lecturer is deeply intertwined with both research and teaching, forming the core of the institution’s mission and impact.

In terms of teaching, lecturers are central to shaping student success through curriculum design, classroom facilitation, and academic support. Their role goes beyond content delivery-they are responsible for developing critical thinkers, supporting diverse student needs, and creating inclusive, innovative learning environments. The university actively invests in this through structures like its teaching development programmes, which aim to strengthen academics as effective facilitators of learning and improve student outcomes.

Equally important is research, where lecturers contribute to knowledge production, innovation, and societal transformation. At UJ, research is not isolated-it is often socially engaged and aligned with national priorities such as equity, transformation, and addressing historical inequalities in higher education. Academics are expected to produce high-quality research outputs, supervise postgraduate students, and contribute to policy-relevant and impactful scholarship.

What makes this role particularly significant is the integration of teaching and research: lecturers use their research to inform their teaching, ensuring that students engage with current, relevant knowledge, while teaching itself becomes a site of inquiry and innovation (e.g., scholarship of teaching and learning).

In essence, at UJ, an academic lecturer is not just a teacher or a researcher, but a knowledge creator, mentor, and change agent, contributing directly to the university’s goals of academic excellence, transformation, and societal impact.

The University of Johannesburg’s current Strategic Plan - UJ Strategic Plan 2035 - guides and frames our activities at all levels of the organisation. It provides the roadmap to achieving our vision and gives effect to our mission.

Our vision

To be an international University of choice, anchored in Africa and the global south, dynamically shaping a sustainable future.

Our mission

To transform and serve humanity through innovation and the collective and collaborative pursuit of knowledge.

Our values

• Impact: Positive societal impact is the key purpose that drives our collective and collaborative academic and organisational activities. Making a difference is what we stand for.
• Innovation: Pushing boundaries in knowledge generation, in technology, in the way we teach and learn, in the way we do research, and in the way we collaborate, defines the way we do things to achieve our societal impact and sustainability vision. We reinvent the future.
• Inclusivity: Harnessing difference and diversity, applying multiple perspectives to solving problems, caring for others, and collaboration in pursuit of a shared vision, characterise our institutional ethos. We see inclusivity as strength.
• Integrity: Honesty, transparency, accountability, openness, fairness, social justice, and a commitment to truth, underpin all our endeavours. We earn trust through integrity.

Everything we do at UJ is intended to make a positive impact on society, the economy, cultural life, public policy, health, and the environment. Our societal impact will ensure the sustainability of our communities, our city, our country, our continent, and our planet. Working together, we will transform our students’ lives through quality education, unlock and maximise the potential of our staff to thrive, apply our energies to developing new generations of influential people, and dedicate our knowledge and time to solving difficult problems for a better and more sustainable world.

• Education: At UJ, we provide our students with a holistic world- class educational experience that extends beyond formal teaching and learning, to prepare them to be curious and resilient critical thinkers who make a positive impact on the world. UJ will lead with education that is based on fundamental principles of quality teaching and learning in an innovative way that is adaptable and flexible, and fit for future needs. Our teaching and learning will be infused with relevant research and underpinned by care, relevance and social responsiveness.
• Research and Innovation: We will build on UJ's success in becoming a leading international research university, anchored in Africa and the global south, focused on finding, offering and spearheading novel and purposeful solutions to the major challenges of our time and of the future. Through the creative use of evolving technologies, our groundbreaking research will contribute to living sustainably in an increasingly digital future.
• Purposeful Collaborative: Our leadership at all levels will be open, accessible, responsive, enabling, and intuitively forward-looking. Our organisational culture will foster a sense of belonging and be characterised by care for everyone in the university community, supporting their growth, development and sustained well-being.

• Societal Impact and Sustainability: As a university immersed in its society, the economy, and the environment, UJ will take a holistic approach to addressing the challenges of our time and of the future and to furthering societal impact and sustainability, from an African and global south perspective.
• Global Footprint and Partnerships: As a university in Africa and the global south, UJ will be at the forefront of generating and applying knowledge to the solution of local and global societal and sustainability issues.
• Technology for the Future: We will be a university that builds on our 4IR strategy to employ technology in a people-centred, humane and ethical way, to cultivate the next generation of minds as we move towards a world of increasing digital complexity.

• How does your teaching and research practice align with and actively contribute to the strategic vision and goals of University of Johannesburg?
• How do you see your role evolving in the future to further strengthen your contribution to UJ's long-term strategic objectives and institutional growth?
• In what ways do your current academic activities-such as curriculum development, postgraduate supervision, and research outputs-support UJ's priorities around transformation, innovation, and societal impact?

VISIT UJ's Website to see its Strategic Plan and the 2035 UJ Strategic Plan:https://www.uj.ac.za/about/strategic-plan/