UCT TLC2026: Connection, Reconfigured: Reimagining teaching and learning with AI

Dear colleagues and students

The University of Cape Town’s (UCT) annual Teaching and Learning Conference (TLC) provides an opportunity for the university’s community to focus on teaching and learning. Co-hosted by the Centre for Higher Education Development (CHED) and the UCT AI Initiative, the 2026 UCT Teaching and Learning Conference (TLC2026) is scheduled to take place from 17–18 November 2026 and will be preceded by workshops on 16 November. 

This year's theme is Connection, Reconfigured: Reimagining teaching and learning with AI. TLC2026 aims to build capacity, connect stakeholders in the education project, and promote critical reflection and questioning as we reconfigure and reimagine higher education in the age of AI. 

AI in education

Artificial Intelligence is rapidly reshaping the landscape of higher education. Its integration into teaching, learning and research raises questions that are as much about what it means to be human as they are about technology and tools. TLC2026 asks: what does it mean to be human – as an educator, as a student, as a knowledge producer – in a world where AI can increasingly do what we once thought was distinctively ours? 

The conference will be immersive and participatory, allowing participants to not only hear about AI, but to encounter it, question it, play with it and push back against it – in sessions designed to provoke, connect and produce something tangible. UCT educators, students, researchers and professional staff will explore, debate, critique and reimagine education in the age of AI.

I invite you to submit proposals responding to this call.

Why this, why now 

UCT's Strategy 2030 acknowledges the challenges arising from the adoption and utilisation of AI in higher education and beyond. The UCT AI in Education Framework and the UCT AI in Education Community of Practice provide an institutional foundation – but the harder work is being done, day by day, in classrooms, tutorials, research, supervisory meetings and self-study sessions across the university. 

TLC2026 is an opportunity for UCT to take stock of where we are, to share what we have learned so far – from innovation grants, from experiments that worked and those that did not – and to ask together what kind of university we want to be as this technology continues to evolve.

The question is not whether AI will shape UCT's future. It already is. The question is whether we shape that future together, with intention, care and a clear sense of what a UCT education is for. 

We welcome submissions related to the following: 

Key themes 

• Relationships and the Relational 
• Student Agency and Voice 
• Equity, Access and the Uneven Landscape 
• Critical and Ethical Perspectives 
• Disciplinary Identities and AI 
• Co-creation, Collaboration and Social AI 
• The Future of the University 
• Wild card submissions 

Detailed descriptions of the themes and formats can be found on the TLC 2026 conference page. 

• Submit a proposal to present at TLC2026.

Please register to attend the conference, regardless of whether you are submitting a proposal. 

I look forward to interacting with you at the 2026 UCT Teaching and Learning Conference. 

If you have any further queries, please send an email and a member of the organising team will get back to you. For more information about the TLC2026, visit the TLC2026 page. 

Sincerely

Professor Brandon Collier-Reed
Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching and Learning

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• From the UCT Executive
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