On 24 and 25 April 2025, the University of Venda (UNIVEN) Convocation hosted its Strategic Planning Workshop to strengthen alumni engagement and to advance UNIVEN’s vision 2040. This workshop took place at the Protea Hotel, Fire and Ice in Pretoria.
The Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research and Postgraduate Studies, Professor Joseph Francis, officially opened the Convocation Workshop on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor and Principal. He described the workshop as a valuable opportunity for Convocation to reflect, re-imagine, and reset its vision.
In his remarks on the theme, “Strengthening Alumni Engagement to Advance UNIVEN Vision 2040,” Professor Francis encouraged deep reflection by posing a series of thought-provoking questions: As Convocation and Alumni, what is your positioning statement in light of the Univer-sity’s strategic direction? How will you embody and uphold that statement? Will you contribute your time, talent, or other resources to support this vision?
In conclusion, he extended his best wishes for a successful and impactful workshop.
The workshop reflected on the 2021-2024 period, reviewing the achievements and challenges of previous Convocation programmes and identifying opportunities for future convocation ini-tiatives. During this workshop, members of Convocation extracted key areas from the previous strategy that are still relevant for developing a foundation for the new Convocation strategy. As the day progressed, members of the Convocation came up with key strategic priorities of new Convocation Strategy while aligning the new strategy with UNIVEN’s vision 2040.
On Day two of the workshop, the two groups from the breakaway sessions gave feedback on key focus areas of the 2025 Programme of Action. Then later, they finalised and adopted the Convo-cation’s 2025 Programme of Action for ratification by the Executive Committee of Convocation.
The President of Convocation, Mr Sylvester Motadi, in his concluding remarks, said that the amount of time that was spent trying to achieve the strategic goals of Convocation was not in vain. “We have achieved a lot, and we can only improve from here. It is important to achieve all the activities that we have set for ourselves.” He encouraged members of Convocation to work hard and make sure that they achieve all their goals. “We also have a task of not compromising one another in the process,” he said.
The Deputy President of Convocation, Mr Rudzani Mushweu, thanked the University Manage-ment for rendering the thought-provoking presentation and support.
The workshop was also attended by the University Registrar, Dr Joel Baloyi.
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Department of Marketing, Branding and Communication University of Venda
Tel: 082 868 2218 / 082 868 1811
