Welcome Message

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Welcome to Teaching and Learning at UMP

The University of Mpumalanga’s Teaching and Learning division has excellent nationally and internationally renowned teaching and academic support staff. The division is driven by the vision and mission of UMP to be an African university in its epistemology and pedagogy, and to “offer high quality educational and training opportunities that foster the holistic development of students through teaching and learning, research and scholarship, and engagement, in collaboration with strategic partners.’
 
There are currently three faculties, two of which, Agriculture and Natural Sciences, and Economics, Development and Business Science are located at the Mbombela campus, and the faculty of Education is located at the Siyabuswa campus. These faculties are led by outstanding deans who deeply care about student success.
 
At UMP, teaching and learning are supported through rigorous and continuous professional development opportunities for the teaching staff. The academic staff development section provides modules ranging from equitable assessment to diverse teaching methodologies. The academic student development section creates opportunities for students to enhance their academic skills and works collaboratively with the Students Affairs division to provide holistic development opportunities for our students. The academic staff and student development section is led by dedicated staff who place excellence in teaching and learning at the centre of their practice.

Teaching and learning at UMP are underpinned by the following educational philosophical tenets:
  • Development of our students as independent and critical thinkers with a passion for knowledge and its application;
  • Ensuring that our teaching is theoretically informed, pedagogically appropriate, and sensitive to diversity in all its forms in the educational environment;
  • Development of curricula that emphasize the interconnectedness of teaching and learning, research and scholarship, and engagement;
  • Ensuring that our qualifications and curricula are context responsive;
  • Ensuring that our curricula and extra curricula activities expose students to different ways of knowing and to the value of Indigenous Knowledge Systems;
  • Supporting our staff to become reflective and reflexive practitioners who use information communication technologies to improve learning, which will occur in a diverse range of formal and informal settings; and
  • Providing development programmes for academic staff and student support programmes that will support a broadening of access, with increased levels of student success.
These philosophical tenets are applied in order to have graduates who are (a) resourceful, responsive and responsible, (b) innovative and entrepreneurial, (c)  confident and effective communicators, (d) ethically and socially aware change agents, (e) adaptable, and (f) have sound discipline knowledge.