Abstract:

There are many challenges to managing a department at a Higher Education Institution (HEI), especially since changes made necessary by regulations regarding managing risks; and governmental lockdowns since Covid-19. This is even more complicated in the field of Computer Science (CS) and Information Systems (IS) where programmes must be frequently updated to ensure relevance and employability of students. The aim of this paper is to review literature on this problem and consider possible solutions from previous studies. Following on that, the authors describe an intervention that was made to address this, using an example from a School of CS and IS (SCSIS) at a HEI in South Africa. Collaboration is made even more difficult in this case by the fact that this School offers programmes on 3 campuses, with distances of more than 100km between two campuses and more than 300 km to the third. The CS program on these campuses is fully aligned with a double major program also aligned between 2 of the campuses, as well as presented in the distance mode. The paper starts with a literature review and includes a case study and quantitative data. A workshop was arranged to bring 39 staff members from the three campuses together for two days. During this workshop a vision statement for the SCSIS was discussed and refined. The paper describes this process and the results thereof, including feedback from staff members, and the way this was used to formulate the current mission and vision. The vision statements are presented in this paper, discussed, and compared to others where possible. Results showed that the process of discussing a vision is an important part of the motivation and planning of a department, contributing more than just the resulting vision statement. Staff members also discussed the content of the modules in our programmes, this included detail on the flow in (pre-knowledge) and flow out of each of the modules included in the main programme. These results and the implications thereof are discussed in the paper. Results from the discussions on each module in the programmes showed that lecturers need more information on the content of the other modules that are part of the prior knowledge students enter each specific module with. Lecturers also need to put thought into the content they teach and where students will use this when they graduate. Staff members also provided feedback on the perceived advantages and disadvantages of the workshop. Building relationships, brainstorming, and seeing the bigger picture of the School and its’ programmes, as well as boosting of morale were some of the advantages mentioned by several staff members.

Keywords:

Leadership, higher education, planning.