One of UCT's strategic goals is contribute to South Africa's development challenges.
The aim is to share knowledge that will benefit society. By fostering civic literacy in students, and providing them with knowledge and skills, UCT aims to build a more just, equitable and unified South African society.
To achieve this goal, innovative partnerships have been formed between UCT academics and a variety of other social structures, including government, local communities, social movements, and various international and local organisations.
Social responsiveness takes various forms, including:
research activities
engagement with policy development
public commentary on development issues and strategies
social outreach activities by students
programmes to empower external constituencies
the improvement of the relevance of the curriculum
providing opportunities for lifelong learning.
Social Responsiveness Report
UCT produces an annual Social Responsiveness Report that highlights how the the university tackles social, economic, cultural and political needs.
The report reflects on what has been achieved, as well as identifying what still needs to to be done.
UCT has developed a Conceptual Framework for Social Responsiveness which covers different kinds of activities and provides examples of the type of scholarly outputs that result from them.
These social-responsive activities include:
producing and sharing knowledge for the public good
engaging with non-academic external groups
public conversations about development challenges
volunteer activities amongst students
community-based education or service learning
compulsory and non-compulsory community service.
Examples of scholarly activities include:
strategic research
monitoring, evaluation or project reports
policy document preparation and review
teaching in continuing-education courses
models and monographs
sharing knowledge through articles in popular journals, booklets, or learning materials
public dialogue, eg, through newspaper articles
submissions to government
discussion papers
maps and plans
consultancies or contract research for public benefit.
