Faculty of Humanities
Prof ME Muller, Dean
Telephone number: 012 420 2318
Fax number: 012 420 4501
E-mail address: marie.muller@up.ac.za
Message from the Dean
The Faculty of Humanities acknowledges that teaching and research are indivisible, and that each must feed off the other. Therefore - and in line with the UP Strategic Plan - we expect all academic staff to engage in research activities, and to aim at achieving the research excellence that is expected of us by the University.
Our faculty aims to produce research that is both locally relevant and internationally competitive. This is also in line with UP policy. In addition, we aim to produce research that goes beyond relevance to achieve impact, both at home and abroad.
Research is often a collaborative endeavour. The faculty acknowledges this, and encourages co-operation and collaboration both within the faculty itself and the UP community as a whole (i.e. across departmental and faculty boundaries), as well as with the wider scholarly community at home and abroad. We regard international collaboration not merely as a means of stimulating research, but also as a means of establishing broad benchmarks and a higher degree of competitiveness.
A new and fresh dimension in the faculty’s vision of research is the decision to also place a high value on creative outputs. The Faculty of Humanities acknowledges that a substantial proportion of its staff is involved in creative work, which includes fields such as acting, writing, playing a musical instrument, conducting, composing, painting, drawing, etc.
Creative work is accepted per se as potentially equivalent to research. Decisions on this equivalency, i.e. on the quantitative and qualitative nature of such creative outputs, are made by the appropriate committee of the University. (An article on UP’s strategy to reward creative output is on page… of this report.)
Our faculty also believes that we have a responsibility to invest in future researchers. We attempt to increase the number of our postgraduate students, though with the emphasis on acquiring and maintaining quality, not mere quantity.
The faculty also guides younger, less experienced staff in developing their research. We organize research days to encourage, stimulate and promote research, and we give guidance to staff applying for the first time for an NRF rating. Research is going from strength to strength in our faculty.
Prof ME Muller
Dean
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