Our value propositions are:

• Professional development and recognition of academics as university teachers.
• Enhanced student academic access, retention, attainment and success.
• Innovative and professional teaching & learning designs.
• Enabling teaching & learning environments.

Message from the Chief Director: Centre for Teaching and Learning

The Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) is the intellectual and moral heart of the NWU’s academic project. Here, teaching is not just practised, it is thoughtfully examined; not simply delivered, but imaginatively reimagined; not treated as routine, but upheld as a scholarly, ethical, and transformative endeavour. At its core, CTL exists to advance teaching and learning as a public good: socially responsive, intellectually rigorous, and attuned to the lived realities of our students and the society we serve. We affirm teaching as a scholarly practice grounded in evidence, reflective inquiry, and a deep commitment to student success, belonging, and epistemic justice.

Structure of the Centre for Teaching and Learning

The centre is structured to provide comprehensive integrated support for curriculum innovation, teaching excellence, and student success in the institution. Its work is organised into two complementary directorates that together strengthen both the academic core and the student learning experience.

 

Directorate: Curriculum and Teaching Enhancement

This directorate focusses on the design, renewal and enhancement of curricula and teaching practices to ensure academic coherence, relevance, and quality. Its core areas of responsibility include academic planning, teaching enhancement, programme and module development, and faculty support. Through this work, the directorate

supports faculties in aligning curricula with institutional priorities, disciplinary standards, and evolving pedagogical approaches.

 

Directorate: Student and Learning Environment Support

This directorate is dedicated to advancing student success by strengthening learning environments and providing targeted academic and technological support. Its areas of focus include learning environments, academic development and support for students, learning technology and innovation, the Teaching and Learning Technologies Support Hub, and faculty support. The directorate plays a central role in the creation of inclusive, enabling, and digitally responsive learning spaces that improve student engagement and achievement.

Together, these two directorates enable the CTL to work holistically throughout the teaching learning continuum, supporting academic staff and students to achieve excellence in teaching, learning, and curriculum transformation.

A key priority for CTL is to equip academics with the skills, resources, and support needed to develop innovative responses to a rapidly changing higher education landscape and to drive meaningful curriculum and academic transformation at NWU. We are committed to supporting the intellectual, professional, and personal growth of all academics and empowering them as reflective practitioners and change agents.

The CTL is intentionally collaborative. We work alongside faculty, academic leaders, professional staff and students to ensure that teaching and learning initiatives are coherent, contextually grounded, and strategically aligned with the vision of NWU. We reject silos in favour of shared purpose and compliance in favour of thoughtful, principled engagement. Above all, the CTL is animated by the belief that excellent teaching is neither accidental nor static. It is cultivated through dialogue, sustained support, scholarly reflection, and courageous innovation. I invite every colleague in the institution to engage with CTL not merely as a service unit, but as a scholarly partner dedicated to nurturing teaching that is humane, inclusive, and intellectually ambitious.

Together, we can ensure that our lecture rooms, curricula, and learning spaces remain sites of possibility where knowledge is questioned and created, where students are affirmed and challenged, and where the transformative promise of higher education is realised.

Prof Mpho Chaka

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