One of key responsibilities for National Association of Student Development Practitioners (NASDEV) is to produce special quality leaders to ensure that South Africa achieves 2030 vision, according to MEC for Provincial Planning and Treasury Phumulo Masualle.
He said that at a NASDEV winter school gala dinner held at East London’s Internal Conventional Centre where he was invited by hosts Walter Sisulu University to make a keynote address.
“For this country to achieve 2030 vision, we need association like yours to produce leaders of special quality. Higher institutions of learning are expected to be the major drivers of the information or knowledge system and linking it with economic development. Our government had recently developed a National Development Plan, which had a serious bearing on Education. This is the document that I believe that as an institution that is found in South Africa you should have and you should read to understand, implement in your business and live it,” said MEC Masualle.
According to Masualle, universities are key in the development of the country and should therefore claim back the role of being the major role players on innovations. “Every innovation should carry the institution of higher learning’s flag and that can only happen on strengthening the research side and not only concentrate on giving education to the students,” he added.
NASDEV is an association comprising practitioners from all universities including Further Education Training Colleges that are found in the country. According to NASDEV President Gugulethu Xaba, the association’s role is to arm student leaders who are working on student affairs.
“We organise seminars, workshops and capacity building programmes to learn new and best practices. We invite international institutions with journals because we also want to improve the literature side of our student leaders,” said Xaba.
The four-day conference they held in East London was about the presentation of various papers and presentations on the work that different universities are doing.
