Awareness of the need for lifelong learning - conference in Portugal

On our way to Europe via Dubai 

Just more than 150 days to go to the start of the third International Conference on Lifelong Education and Leadership for all (ICLEL) that will be held in Porto from 12 to 14 September 2017. Porto is the second largest city after Lisbon in Portugal and is served by its own international airport that makes access easy from all over the world. The city is located on the Iberian Peninsula. 

Over the last twenty years it became clear that to be employable and promotable, people working in the technology driven network society need to embrace lifelong learning. On the one hand, this is overstating the obvious, as humans are constantly learning and adapting to circumstances anyway but on the other hand it is clear that there should be more focus on continuous opportunities for learning and development formal Higher Education if this sector wants to retain its influence and impact on society in the years to come. 

With more than 50 topics related to Life long learning in about every sector of Education, academics from all subject fields would be able to present research findings and learn from others. How awesome would it be to have research published on 'Lifelong learning in...' and having the topic or subject field of choice added to complete the title. Keynote speakers include Prof. John Holford (England), Prof. Danielle Taana Smith (USA) and Prof. Mehmet Saribiyilc (Turkey). One of the workshops will focus on outdoor learning and creativity. The aim of the conference is to have an enriching social and cultural learning curve as well as an academic learning experience.

Abstracts must be submitted by 30 June and the conference registration fee is 250 Euros. Academics are also welcome to present more than one paper (with an linked increase in registration fee). Previous year's abstract publications are ISI listed.  

Transforming Together mentoring and coaching conference

The beautiful gigantic Lord of the Rings statue in the international airport in Auckland, New Zealand 

Although mentoring is part of the key performance areas for academics at our university (Unisa) for about ten year already, coaching was incorporated only in 2015. Being a great fan of coaching I am often asked what the difference is. The example of sport is sufficient to explain. The mentor is like the captain of the team. S/he is a senior player, has lots of experience, is playing alongside the mentees, in the same team and in the same sport, and is usually on the field and in the battle the whole time while the coach is watching from the side, pointing you towards improvement after carefully watching you play/work/perform. Coaches often (but not always or only) work on short term goals and achieving immanent improvement. Personally, I gained a lot from having an excellent mentor when I was a junior academic but recently I gained much more from the coaching sessions than the mentorship programme.

The Centre for Educational Leadership Research at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand will host the second Transforming Together coaching and mentoring conference from 11 to 13 October 2017. Registration is open and early-bird registration costs $695 (New Zealand Dollar I assume) with a 10 % discount for three or more people registering as a team from the same institution. 

The web page states that '[t]his international conference is for coaches and mentors, researchers and practitioners, students of coaching and mentoring, and interested parties working in all fields. It seeks to provide a platform for participants to connect; to deepen their knowledge of coaching and mentoring; and to contribute to the generation of quality research, theory, knowledge and expertise about coaching and mentoring.' David Clutterbuck will be the keynote speaker at this year's conference. 

The design of the web site makes it clear that cultural and language differences as influential in both mentoring and coaching, is fully recognized. South Africans, as part of the rainbow nation with its more than 30 languages (11 official) and wide range of cultures, can surely benefit from this opportunity to learn and present on our experiences. 

A brand new conference on advance research: a World of opportunity

Not many will do this, but we fly to Australia (from South Africa) via Dubai and enjoy every moment. 

Unisa is the oldest Distance Education Higher Education institution in the world (140+ years) and we are very proud of this but to stay relevant in the fast-changing world of networks and technology, academics in distance education need to focus on advanced research.

The Asia Pacific Institute of Advanced learning will host the first Australia and New Zealand Conference on Advanced Research (ANZCAR-  2017) from 17 to 18 June 2017 in Melbourne, Australia, on the theme 'World of opportunities' and covering business, Education, Social sciences and ICT. Early-bird registration is open ($400) until 8 May and abstracts must be submitted by 28 April. 

Looking at the topics, I am sure every academic can find an area of interest and should be spoiled for choice for the duration of the conference on which presentations to attend. Topics include:

Business: Accounting, Strategic Finance, Macro- and  Micro-economics, Management, Marketing, Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Human Resources, Performance Management, Recruitment and Selection, Logistics and Supply Chains, Globalisation, E-commerce, and others.

Social Sciences: Anthropology, Archaeology, Area, Cultural and Ethnic Studies, Communications, Gender and Sexuality studies, Geography, History, Law, Linguistics, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, International Relations, Development Studies, Population Studies, Journalism, Corporate Governance, Cross-Cultural Studies, Peace and Conflict Studies, Public Administration, Philosophy, Women’s Studies, Religious Studies and Social Welfare Studies.

Education: Theory of Education, Assertive and Assistive Educational Technology, Comparative Education, Counselling, Cultural Literacy, Curriculum Studies, Distance Education, Early Education, Educational Change, Educational Policy, Planning and Practice, Educational Psychology, Education and Public Policy, Educational Research and Statistics, E-learning, Health Education, Tertiary Education, Innovative Education, Information & Library Science, International Exchange Programs, Language Education, Liberal Education, Mathematics Education, Medical Education, Physical Education, Science Education, Secondary Education, Special Education and Technology Education.

Information and Communication Technology: Advanced IT Bio/Medical Engineering, Bioinformatics and applications, Business and Information Systems, Cloud computing, Convergence in Information Technology Security, Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, Digital convergence, Electronic Commerce, Business and Management, Grid and Cloud Computing, Intelligent Robotics and Autonomous Agents, Hardware and Software Design, Health and Medical Informatics, Hybrid information technology, Intelligent communications and networks, IT-based Convergence Technology and Service, Multimedia convergence, Smart Card and RFID Technologies, Soft Computing and Intelligent Systems, Social and Business Aspects of Convergence IT, Ubiquitous Computing and Embedded Systems, Recent Trends in Computing & Information technology.

Durban in November: HELTASA conference

Durban has an excellent bird park - do not miss this attraction while there

Registration and the call for abstracts are open for the Higher Education, Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa (HELTASA) conference that will be held at the Coastlands Umhlanga Hotel and Convention Centre in Durban, between 21 and 24 November 2017. 

The event will be hosted by the Durban University of Technology and the theme for this year's conference is: Higher Education well-being: Transcending boundaries, re-framing excellence. Sub-themes are: 'Greater purpose of higher education; access and parity of participation; reframing student success; enriching the curriculum; and knowledge in the academy. All abstracts must focus on the linking of theory and practice and its connection to higher education well-being. I am sure these challenging topics and the link between theory and practice will ensure a very high standard and stimulating discussions, as previous HELTASA conferences are proof of. 


Registration is open and early bird registration (that is costing R4500) ends 30 June 2017 after which standard registration will cost R5000. Registration closes on 30 August. 

In addition to the pre-conference workshops, this conference will also host oral presentations, poster presentations, critical dialogue sessions and flipped paper sessions (discussions on completed or draft papers). Abstracts for all of these categories are invited and the closing date is 31 May. 

Keynote speakers include Prof Bal Chandra Luitel from the Kathmandu University, Prof Yusef Waghid from the University of Stellenbosch and Prof Stephanie Allain from the University of the Witwatersrand.

Most of us do not need a second invitation to visit the warm waters of the beautiful hibiscus and dolphin coasts of KwaZuluNatal. If you can get yourself away from the beech you can visit uShaka marine world or go bungy jumping from the roof of the Moses Mabhida stadium. The oldest surviving botanical garden is also worth a visit and our favourite is the Umgeni River Bird Park with more than 300 species, a packed programme and cheap enough to visit with the family.  

Postgraduate Conference 2017 - awesome experience

One of the ponds on the Spier wine farm near Stellenbosch 

The postgraduate forum for Southern Africa held its' first annual meeting during the Postgraduate Supervision Conference at Spier, near Stellenbosch in South Africa last week. This is an interest group in support of South African postgraduate schools and centres, initiated during the previous two Postgraduate Supervision conferences held in 2013 and 2015 also at Spier. The chair is Henriette van den Berg from the University of the Free State and the secretary is Bloodless Dzwairo from DUT. We hope the see and hear great things from this forum in the coming months. 

While the next Postgraduate Supervision Conference in South Africa will only take place in 2019, the sister conference will, as usual, take place next year in Australia. The 13th biannual Quality in Postgraduate research (QPR) conference will take place on 17, 18 and 19 April 2018 in Adelaide. Just as its sister conference that takes place every second year at Spier which is a wine farm, the Australian conference takes place at the National wine Centre in Adelaide. So keep an eye open for the call for participation in next years conference in Australia.

This year, here in South Africa at the six Postgraduate Conference, 160 people gathered to participate in the pre-conference workshops, listened to keynoted addresses by Nick Hopwood (Australia), Suzanne Otega (USA), Kirsti Pyhalto (Finland) and Amaleya Goneos-Malka (South Africa) and enjoyed the conference dinner at Nooitgedagt wine farm. International speakers came from England, Israel, Sweden, Canada and Rwanda. The conference also attracted speakers and participants from all over South Africa who were interested to hear, see and learn more about the Spaces, Journeys and New horizons in postgraduate supervision. This was our third attendance of this conference and we are building networking ties with other participants whom also tend to come back for more every second year. Hope to see you all back in 2019, or at Adelaide in 2018.