IP focuses on all aspects of the institution’s operations, including finance, infrastructure, administration, and external relations. Institutional Planning provides the framework and resources necessary to support the institution’s academic initiatives and overall mission.

The unit undertakes strategic evaluation of the university’s performance against set targets through analysis and benchmarking of performance for academic and support services, as well as the development of an institutional annual performance plan to inform the annual planning process. This unit function can also model future performance trajectories, such as student enrolment projections, complete impact assessments on programme offerings, biographical student data, etc.

Key Elements:

• Strategic Vision: Support establishing the university’s long-term vision and mission for the institution, which aligns with national educational goals.
• Resource Allocation: Planning to effectively use financial, human, and physical resources across the institution.
• Governance and Administration: Structuring the administrative framework to support decision-making and operational efficiency.
• Infrastructure Development: Planning for the physical and technological infrastructure to support academic and administrative functions.
• External Relations: Engaging with stakeholders, including government, industry, and the community, to enhance collaboration and support.
• Conceptualisation, coordination, conducting and managing all assigned projects for institutional planning using various appropriate methodologies (qualitative and quantitative).
• Institutional strategic planning and re-integration of strategic intelligence emanating from institutional research outcomes into the business cycle and service delivery to inform the formulation of the university’s strategic direction and deliverables.
• Coordinate the development of institutional Annual Performance Plans (APPs) and Annual Divisions Operational Plans.
• Develop the institutional enrolment plan with the collaboration of MIS and Faculties.
• Annual institutional scorecard on predetermined objectives for respective academic years.
• Sector benchmarking reports for purposes of knowledge sharing.

The Management Information Systems (MIS) unit is responsible for gathering, validating, analysing, and disseminating institutional information to support the university’s institutional planning, evidence-based decision-making, and both internal and external reporting. The unit fulfils the university’s statutory reporting obligations by coordinating and leading HEMIS audits, maintenance, and management of the University’s Academic Structure. The unit is responsible for:

• Statutory Reporting to DHET(HEMIS)
• Support for annual and mid-year performance assessment reports to DHET
• Official management information on institutional statistics to internal and external stakeholders
• Facilitates and develops the enrolment planning with faculties consultations.
• Enrolment monitoring and institutional performance trends.
• Data provisioning for three layers of management i.e. strategic, tactical, and operational.
• Provision of data analyses on success, access, efficiency, and research indicators (throughput, graduate, cohort, attrition, retention).
• Support Institutional reporting for APP, Mid-Term, and annual performance reports (APRs).
• Handling of long-range university-wide data requests (planned, ad hoc, and research-related).
• Trend analysis, benchmarks, and data provisioning.
• Prepares, collates, and analyses data for subsidy purposes (TIU, TOU, RG, and IFG).
• Forecasting, and projections using the institutional data for various purposes.
• Prepare, collate, and submit institutional performance data following university ranking agencies’ requirements.
• Maintenance, tuning, and administration of the HEDA environment, refurbishing and development of the new dashboards
• Institutional subsidy allocation reports and projections for planning purposes (working with the Finance division).
• Institutional ranking in collaboration with the International Relations and Partnerships Department.

The Quality Assurance (QA) unit supports the University’s strategy by advising and interpreting policies and procedures that address academic planning, program and qualification mix (PQM), and promoting quality assurance for both academic and non-academic activities. The unit facilitates internal and external processes (i.e. program accreditation processes, internal program quality reviews, departmental quality reviews etc.) to assure stakeholders to conform to applicable standards, guidelines and criteria that define the higher education landscape. The unit is also responsible for promoting quality culture within the institution by engaging with academic platforms and support structures in the processes and procedures of self-evaluation and peer review, to lead to consciousness about strengths, areas for development, and continuous improvement. Overall, the unit acts as a liaison office between the university and the DHET, the HEQC of CHE, SAQA, and professional bodies on key issues that have an impact on academic programs.