Stellenbosch University: Accountancy writing retreat promotes collaboration between SU and UCT

Lecturers from the School of Accountancy at Stellenbosch University (SU) and the College of Accounting at the University of Cape Town (UCT) recently attended a three-day writing retreat at the Mont Fleur Conference Centre near Stellenbosch. It was the second joint writing retreat and has now become an annual event.

It is aimed at promoting research collaboration between SU and UCT, while allowing participants to focus on their own research projects. Prof Ruth Albertyn of the Department of Curriculum Studies at SU acted as writing consultant and facilitator.

According to Dr George Nel, Deputy Director of Research at the School of Accountancy, “Writing retreats are especially useful to create an atmosphere of trust and safety for productive research writing.”

Participants agreed that the cross pollination enriched their understanding of their research fields, that engaging with other academics inspired research and helped with motivation, and that both the input and the feedback from the facilitator enhanced the research process.

One of the participants remarked, “The writing retreat gave me an opportunity to bounce ideas off colleagues who are also in the same frame of mind.” Another participant said, “Collaboration with other researchers is invaluable to being an academic scholar. Writing retreats serve not only as an opportunity to catch up on research but also to network with respected research leaders in their fields.”