The power of staying relevant is the key question at this year’s Marketing, Advancement and Communication in Education (MACE) 2022 Annual National Congress taking place at the University of Pretoria.
The congress sees experts from the fields of marketing, advancement and communication share experiences and best practices.
Some of the topics up for discussion at this years’ conference includes, African relevance delivered by founder and chairman of Brand Africa and Brand Leadership, Thebe Ikalafeng.
Regina le Roux speaks about managing reputation during uncertain times which is highly topical as a number of universities and tertiary institutions are currently dealing with race scandals, legal battles with high reputational damage, leadership struggles etc.
While deputy director of digital communication at Stellenbosch University, Marick Hornsveld explained the rules and regulations around the Popia Act and how education institutions can stay above the law.
Hornsveld’s discussion raised a number of questions about photography on campuses, use of students images in advertising and obtaining proper permissions before photographing or recording students and anyone else on university property.
African News Agency (ANA) chief content officer Ricky Naidoo delivered a media perspective on the challenges facing higher education institutions at the MACE Congress.
He said that at the centre of the crisis of challenges facing higher education institutions, sits the country’s overall transformational agenda “where the initial optimism has been eroded since the dawn of democracy and a growing mood of hopelessness has settled in”.
In his discussion with those attending the congress, Naidoo said the transformation agenda underpinning the 1994 democracy project had been hijacked by greed and self-serving agendas in all sectors of our society.
He said it was critical to understand the context of the challenges confronting the higher education sector, as the congress was meeting at a time when the state of the country’s democracy was under intense scrutiny.
The toxic social, political and economic state of affairs had created high levels of despondency within the broader population, while the despondency had been exacerbated by a violent crime pandemic, including the scourge of violence against against women and children, a never-ending energy crisis, rampant corruption and the collapse of service delivery.
Consequently, Naidoo said, this compendium of issues had turned the promise of a better life for all into a mirage, as the yoke of unemployment, poverty and inequality weighed heavily on the shoulders of most South Africans.
In his discussion, Naidoo said that transformation of higher education sector had been fraught with immense challenges and continued to grapple with a range of issues including racism, violent confrontation, leadership struggles, funding, unpaid debt, social unrest, gender-based violence, the impact of the faltering economy on the sector and ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, speaking from a media perspective, he said the higher education sector still had a good story to tell.
“In an environment where the negatives become the dominant narrative, the task confronting yourselves as marketing and communication professionals becomes immensely difficult.
“However, it is not all doom and gloom. Notwithstanding the myriad of challenges, I am quite certain that all of your respective institutions have great stories to tell on a daily basis,” he said.
Naidoo said these stories must be told to counter the negative narrative and to empower ordinary citizens to believe that achieving a better life for all was still a real possibility.
He encouraged higher education institutions to engage in various opportunities of collaboration.
Over the years, Independent Media, through its 16 print titles with a footprint across the country and its digital platform IOL, has partnered with higher education institutions on a range of strategic projects.
ANA is Independent Media’s syndication service where it has partnered with key African media companies to share a range of multimedia content.
The recently launched “The African” is a critical thought leadership platform that affords a range of voices from civil society and the academic world to engage in critical debate and discussion on current affairs.
“Notwithstanding the current economic limitations imposed by shrinking funding allocations and a depressed economy, it is our view that innovative partnerships between ourselves to tell your stories remain a real possibility,” Naidoo said.
The two-day 2022 Annual Mace Congress is taking place this week in Pretoria – the first congress in two years – under the theme “The Power of Staying Relevant”.
Education