Reminder: Complete UCT’s staff inclusivity survey

Dear colleagues

On Monday, 20 May 2019, UCT staff with access to email received an email from Aephoria, a UCT-appointed external service provider, with the subject line “InclusionIndex 2019 is finally here!”. This followed the communication from the Vice-Chancellor on Monday, 13 May introducing the Staff Inclusivity Survey. The InclusionIndex, which has been tested at multiple institutions, was developed by Aephoria and was adjusted for UCT.

All members of the campus community are encouraged to participate in the 2019 University of Cape Town (UCT) InclusionIndex survey. The Office for Inclusivity and Change (OIC) and a UCT working group chaired by myself are working with Aephoria. It was our considered view that at this time it would be best to use an external service provider to administer the survey, to ensure 100% confidentiality. All of the data received will be housed by Aephoria. Please be assured that no one at UCT will have access to the raw data. The data that will be given to UCT will be anonymised prior to receipt.

There has been encouraging feedback at the end of the first full week of the survey, which will run until 14 June 2019. A good number of electronic surveys have been completed. Aephoria has facilitated two multilingual completion sessions on campus capturing paper surveys from professional, administrative support and service (PASS) staff. A number of additional sessions are continuing this week. I encourage staff to continue participating in the survey.

While the anonymous survey runs from 20 May to 14 June 2019, the process of transformation will continue. Transformation requires purposeful and sustained action and it needs to be constantly interrogated and understood through the evolution of our thinking and how we do things. Your participation is vital because the information you share with us will provide quantitative data on institutional culture, which together with follow-up qualitative interviews will shape the development and implementation of  interventions aimed at broader inclusion. We are committed to making the necessary changes that will improve the culture at UCT. In order to measure our efficacy and to track our progress towards inclusivity, we will be conducting a post-assessment survey in 2023 which will track any shift in inclusion.

Should there be a need, I and the OIC will be available to address any concerns or questions in a group setting at departmental or faculty level. If you wish to  arrange such a session, please contact Nina Barnes.

If you have any questions regarding the survey you can read the most frequently asked questions in English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa.

There is also a web page for the UCT Staff Inclusivity Survey to help keep you updated and informed, and which will include links to all our communications to you about the survey.

In addition, you may contact Aephoria directly, should you have any further questions about the survey: email help@aephoria.co.za or send a WhatsApp message to 071 186 3441.

Thank you for participating in this survey.

Sincerely

Professor Loretta Feris
Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Transformation

Read previous communications:

• From the UCT Executive
• Campus Announcements