The concept of Communities of Practice (COP), developed in the early 1990s, is powerful. These communities bring together people who share a common concern or passion, allowing them to learn from each other and improve their practice collaboratively.

By fostering interaction and regular engagement, COP can lead to innovative solutions and better ways of doing things – potentially cultivating the design of a culture of student success, and in the long run, addressing social challenges such as food insecurity, gender-based violence and mental health. poverty, crime and high rates of unemployment.

It is for these reasons that the University of the Western Cape’s (UWC) ongoing efforts to enhance the student experience and ensure their success took another positive turn on Friday – with the launch of the University’s own Communities of Practice.

The initiative, in the Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Student Development and Support (SDS), aims among other things, to co-create a thriving culture of success at the University through collaborative and innovative practices by various departments and units.

The project is a result of extensive work carried out in 2023 by SDS task teams that focused on Mental Health and Gender-Based Violence, Student Leadership, and enhancing both the undergraduate and postgraduate experiences – areas that Professor Matete Madiba, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for SDS, described as “disruptive forces”.

“Out of 100 learners who start Grade 1, only 40 sit for matric exams, and of those 40 only 12 are chosen for university studies. Every student who walks through the UWC gates is talented. We are dealing with the cream of the crop, and our joint responsibility is to make sure that we nurture the talent to blossom so that their experience on campus can take them into their lives beyond university.”

These were the words of Prof Madiba as she delivered the keynote address at the launch of the University’s Communities of Practice.

Prof Madiba said the student experience is high on the University’s Institutional Operational Plan, and that success was achievable provided that the culture of success becomes a lifestyle and a way of doing things on a regular basis.

“A vision is useless if it cannot lead to execution and if it cannot inspire you and pull you into a set of actions. What you do daily should contribute to the vision, to the big strategy towards achieving this vision. If you do not do that, then the vision that you have is useless.’

Prof Madiba said she is excited about the launch of the COP as very early in her professional life, she was introduced to the concept and realised the power of being within a community.

“You want to check out the ideas and that is why you need a community. You have this bright idea and you're not even confident, but it excites you in some way. If you have this community to share ideas with, they will start polishing it, cutting it out into pieces, helping you to think deeper and better until it moves from ideation to execution. By the time you execute with a community, you already know that the idea is worthwhile because many other minds have contributed towards shaping this idea”. 

In the process of designing a culture of success, Prof Madiba warned the audience of the disruptive forces such as mental health, protests, gender-based violence and student leadership. “If we do not work with student governance wisely and have leaders who are visionary who take their positions and join in the co-creation of the culture of success, we won't go very far. We have to be pre-emptive, preventative and proactive. That is we have to put our efforts into building flagship projects and programmes that are preventative of all of these forces. And there are many, but when we get organised we can end up having one bullet or one missile that shoots many of the stresses.”

At the event, Dr. Faeza Khan relayed the SDS Journey to realising the Communities of Practice; Laetitia Permall spoke on UWC’s Integrated Student Mental Health and Wellness Policy; Rone Gerber gave an address on Developing Comprehensive Implementation Plans for the Integrated Student Mental Health and Wellness Policy; and, Candice Seale sspoke on the development of the Student Leadership Framework in SDS.