VISION MISSION

VISIONCommunity service for national development.MISSIONTo facilitate the provision of quality and relevantcommunity service; and to integrate community serviceas a core function of the University.CENTRE FOR COMMUNITY SERVICESContinuedOBJECTIVESThe objectives of the Centre for Community Servicesare to:Promote the development of community serviceprogrammes;Support the integration of community servicelearning programmes and curricula in cooperationwith partners;Encourage and support volunteerism and extra-curricularcommunity involvement by students and staff;Promote corporate partnerships with communitiesand service sectors;Facilitate the integration of community service inUNISWA’s quality assurance of programmes;Promote community service-oriented researchaimed at solving national development challenges;Publicise integrated community service projectsand programmes; andDevelop recognition / reward schemes for staff andstudent participation in community service.EXECUTIVE SUMMARYThe Centre continues to implement initiatives withexternal stakeholders and the partnership with thegrowing student network of clubs and organizationscontinues to strengthen. One success story is theMafutseni project which was fi rst identifi ed by students.Leaders in the rural community of Mafutseni haveprovided land to be used for the benefi t of the youth inthe area. The Centre is facilitating a fundraising drive bystudents and providing other logistics to source fundsfor materials to fence the land so that the youth canembark on income generating projects.The newly established relationship between the Centreand His Majesty’s Correctional Services, where an MOUwas signed the previous year, provides tremendousopportunities for active collaboration. UNISWA willcontinue to expand internship programmes withCorrectional Services for different faculties in addition toMrs. D.G. NkambuleDirector of theCentre for Community Servicesopportunities for training and research. The Departmentof Correctional Services is eager to develop actionorientedresearch with UNISWA staff and students.The Centre sees great potential with the University’sproposed ‘credit system’ and hopes to continue towork collaboratively with departments and faculties indeveloping service learning programmes. The Centreis involved with the Task Team set up by the Pro ViceChancellor in 2010, to develop ‘community serviceactivities assessment guidelines’. The Centre also is alsoworking on a policy that would assess and formalizecommunity service activities of both staff and studentsto rationalize promotion criteria and credit assessment.In this regard, the Centre has embarked on a Universitywideinitiative to formulate a database of all communityservice carried out by staff and students.Centre activities in the past year included:The Lead Afrika women’s empowerment projectin the Enceka community was completed. Theproject was funded jointly by UNISWA andNEPAD through Lead Afrika;Developing a newsletter that will disseminateinformation on community service carried out bystaff, students and external stakeholders; and93REPORT OF THE VICE CHANCELLOR