The Centre for Higher Education Development (CHED) was established in 1999 as an academic organisational unit with a brief from Senate to focus "across faculty boundaries on all matters concerning academic development".
Its brief is to be a cross-faculty hub that contributes to continual improvement in the quality of higher education through widening access, promoting excellence through equity, developing the curriculum in partnership with faculties, enhancing the competence of graduates by ensuring the provision of key skills and abilities and enabling systemic improvement through the research-led development of informed policy options.
The Centre for Higher Education Development’s (CHED) mission is to promote equity of access, effectiveness of teaching and learning, and the enhancement of curricula, with the twin aims of improving student success and ensuring that UCT’s graduates are globally competitive, locally relevant, socially responsive and fully representative of South Africa’s diverse population.
In lieu of this, CHED provides specialist educational expertise to assist faculties to meet UCT's educational and strategic goals: such expertise takes the form of academic staff development, the design and use of online and blended learning in the curriculum, academic writing support, extended curriculum teaching and support, postgraduate teaching, career development and graduate recruitment services amongst others.
CHED currently comprises the following six departments/units
