Welcome to the School of Management, IT and Governance (SMIG) in the College of Law and Management Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
The SMIG exists to develop and implement high quality, contextually relevant academic programmes that produce globally relevant graduates that proactively impact society.
Our academic programmes are aimed at promoting life-long learning and excellence in scholarship and also developing critically engaged citizens and productive professionals who have high relevance in academia, industry, corporate, government, and civil society sectors.
The SMIG Vision is “To be a global leader in Management, IT and Governance education and research and to align with the skills needs of government, industry, corporate and civil society through innovation, entrepreneurship and transformation, contextualised to the complexities of African needs and problems while juxtaposed with global developments”. Our Mission is, “To produce globally competitive graduates in Management, IT and Governance who can positively impact society”.
The SMIG is the third largest School of the 19 Schools in the University of KwaZulu-Natal with a combined student population of about 4000 at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The SMIG is located within the College of Law and Management Studies and has a physical and online presence in three of the five sites of the University – Westville, Howard College and Pietermaritzburg campuses. The School offers a diverse range of academic programmes at undergraduate, honours, postgraduate diploma, Masters and Doctoral levels in the disciplines of – Human Resources Management and Industrial Relations (HRM/IR), Information Systems and Technology (IST), Management and Entrepreneurship (M&E), Public Governance (PubGov), and Supply Chain and Marketing (SCM). Within these broader knowledge domains, the SMIG niche research areas include: Artificial Intelligence, i4.0, Cyber Security, Technology in Education, Big Data analytics, Sustainability, Risk Management and Public Procurement, Marine Human Resources Management, International Human Resources Management, Consumer Behaviour, Diversity and Inclusion, Career Development, Rural livelihoods, public policy implementation, public sector human capacity development, national and sub-national government, disaster management, e-governance, Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurial Ecosystems; Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Innovation.
The SMIG extends access to the above academic offerings to working professionals to afford them the opportunity to study after normal working hours.
The SMIG academic programmes are aligned with national and international labour market needs as enunciated in the SA National Development Plan (NDP 2030), Africa Agenda 2063 and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Furthermore, the SMIG is committed to conducting research aligned to societal needs. This is achieved by bringing our disciplinary perspectives to bear in ways that hone our inter-disciplinarity to effectively address intractable problems facing our world such as those related to poverty, crime, public health, state capture, governance, climate change, etc.
