7 DEPARTMENTS Department of Psychology The Department of Psychology has had a very busy 2021 as I’m sure all departments in all faculties at any university. We started off the year by meeting enrolment targets and in most instances exceeding what was expected of us to take. This meant we had to rally together to find means and ways to teach and supervise, especially since we had 2 vacant posts and a staff member on maternity leave. Despite this we completed all our supervision, teaching, research and admin processes. I’d like to highlight some of the achievements of the department as well as areas of growth. Staff and Student Achievements: Ms L. Haasbroek and Prof. N. Morojele had a paper entitled: A Systematic Literature Review on the Relationship Between Autism Spectrum Disorder and Substance Use Among Adults and Adolescents, published in the Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. Mrs K. McGlynn and Prof. M. Card had a paper entitled: Primary health care nurses’ perceptions of the socio-ecology of mental illness among patients: An exploratory study, published in the Journal of Psychology in Africa. 2022 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings by Subject (THE Subject Rankings) Psychology: retained position in the 301-400 band in the world Psychology: UJ is in joint 2nd place in South Africa, together with North-West University (NWU) and Stellenbosch University (SU) https://www.timeshighereducation.com/worlduniversity-rankings/2022/subject-ranking/ psychology Dr J. Moodley has been invited by the, United Nations Office in New York, to coordinate and contribute to a chapter on SDG 1 in the UN Disability Development Report. Ms Thando Maseti was named M&G top 200 Young South Africans 2021. She also received the Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa Program doctoral dissertation research fellowship for 2021-2022. We had a number of students obtain NRF Honours bursaries; six in total. There is one MA candidate who attained GES 4.0 Master’s Scholarship Award and two PhD candidates attained a Special URC Doctoral Scholarships. Drs Kruger, Basson and J. Moodley were all nominated for the student’s choice Faculty of Humanities teaching award. We have had 3 promotions in the department Dr Sipho Dlamini and Dr Jackie. Moodley from L to SL and Dr Melissa Card from SL to AP. Currently we have a good balance of different ranks in the department but we could do better with regard to the number of full professors in the department. We also have an additional two Associate Professors joining the department in early 2022. Teaching and Learning Highlights We had a focus of streamlining our teaching and learning processes in the department which we did. This entailed creating space on sharepoint where all module and course information is saved so that staff have access to information (study guides, assessment strategies and presentation material). This was extremely helpful for when lecturers were ill or if we had temp lecturers, the module material was easily accessible which meant students were not affected. We also clarified the student grievance processes as well as the plagiarism process in module study guides which allowed students to have all the needed knowledge upfront. Having this kind of transparency has reduced the number of student complaints to faculty and other structures in the university (for the most part). We have also negotiated blended teaching processes for modules shared and taught on DFC. This means that we have 6 modules taught on both APK and DFC which previously were taught on different days and times but now everything is done online with one set of classes and different enrichment tutorial sessions.
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