Dear TAU Fellows and Participants
Due to logistical reasons as well as low numbers of submissions of abstracts, the TAU Operations Committee has made the difficult decision to postpone the TAU Conference scheduled to be held in Lagoon Beach Hotel in Cape Town on January 24, 2023. The Conference will still take place in June 2023 in KwaZulu-Natal at Karridene Beach Hotel.
We understand that this is a busy time of year for most academics and this may have contributed to the low level of submissions. We are also cognizant that many academics may find it difficult to commit to attending the conference at the beginning of the academic year, which is also a busy time. Thus, we have decided to postpone the TAU conference to coincide with Session 3 in June. This will also give you time to develop your submissions.
If you have already submitted an abstract for the conference, thank you! We will carry these submissions over to the June 2023 event with the opportunity to edit them if you wish. We invite those who have not submitted to please submit. New timelines will be communicated to you early next year.
We are sorry for any inconvenience this change may have caused. On behalf of TAU and the Conference Organizing Committee, we would like to thank you for your cooperation and understanding. We are still looking forward to welcoming you in Durban. In the interim we wish you all the best during the festive season. Please also feel free to reach out to Hellen Agumba at taufellowships@uj.ac.za or 0787293915.
We thank you in advance for your patience during this time.
Sincerely
TAU Operations Committee
TAU 3 update
The third cohort of TAU officially ended last year with almost all of the participants having earned their TAU fellows certificates. The group projects in the form of the digital artefacts (DA’s) involved a very large learning curve for us all. It constituted a big step up from the posters constructed by enquiry groups in the first two cohorts of TAU. We hope to have the DA’s uploaded onto the TAU website soon.
TAU 4 session 2
TAU 4 has just completed the 2nd session at the Lagoon Beach Hotel in Cape Town. It was our first fully face to face event since COVID and the beautiful environment added to the joy of being able to engage with each other in person.
TAU office update
Lindani has been promoted to a new position in the Centre for Academic Technologies (CAT) at UJ and will be leaving TAU at from February 2023. In his place we have appointed Charney Akala and Melanie Alexander, both based at UJ. We welcome them both to the TAU family and hope that they will enjoy their time with us.
TAU Fellow conference and award
We are still waiting for a response from DHET as to whether we can use our underspend on budget to host the first TAU conference in 2023 (June). We have received a great deal of support for hosting this event as well and a number of submissions from TAU fellows from all over the country.
The future of TAU
We will be convening a number of planning sessions on the future of TAU during the next few months. Our current funding ends at the end of 2023 and we expect DHET to issue its funding policy statement soon for the next three year cycle (2024-2026). We are preparing a funding proposal for the next two cohorts of TAU (TAU 5 & 6).
Jeff Jawitz
TAU 4 Session 1 Gallery
For more information about the origins of TAU , see the following publications:
DE KADT, Elizabeth; JAWITZ, Jeff. (2018) Exploring Discomfort and Care in the Experience of a National Academic Staff Development Programme. Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning (CriSTaL), 6(2), 21-39. ISSN 2310-7103. Available at: http://cristal.epubs.ac.za/index.php/cristal/article/view/152
DE KADT, Elizabeth. (2019) Promoting social justice in teaching and learning in higher education through professional development. Teaching in Higher Education. Available at:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2019.1617685
We remember TAU colleagues who are no longer with us:
Brenda Leibowitz – Initiator and first convenor of TAU
Prof Alpheus Zobolo (UNIZULU) – TAU 2
Dr. Helena Wessels (SUN) – TAU 2
Dr. Bernie Millar (CPUT) – TAU 2
Dr. Vanessa Merckel (UJ)– TAU Advisor
Prof Moragh Paxton (RU) – TAU Advisor