Hard work does pay off.

Family members and other well wishers are set to descend on the Bellville Campus to celebrate with the class of 2019 who will be graduating over six days.

For the first time in the history of CPUT, the university will be hosting 16 graduation ceremonies this summer from Saturday, the 7th to Friday, the 13th of December 2019.

The Summer Graduation season is the final graduation season for the year, following the Autumn Graduation, which took place in April.

This season, CPUT will confer 7 068 qualifications, of which 85 graduates will receive MTech degrees and 16 will obtain Doctoral degrees.

Qualifications will be awarded across the faculties of Applied Sciences (689 graduates), Business and Management Sciences (2 967), Education and Social Sciences (1 023), Engineering (1 198) Health and Wellness Sciences (336) as well as Informatics and Design (845).

It is expected that thousands of parents, guardians, spouses, partners and other supporters of graduates will attend the ceremonies.

CPUT has over 100 000 alumni, dating back to the university’s historic institutions, and the Class of 2019 will form part of that esteemed network. Annually close to 10 000 graduate from CPUT.

**Watch this event via live broadcast on the CPUT Live Video Streaming website.

Written by Kwanele Butana
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Women in Leadership Programme for 2006 was launched recently when women students from various universities in the Western Cape gathered on the Bellville campus. Twenty-five representatives from various academic institutions took part in this year’s programme.

“As part of the programmme, students attend workshops on leadership, self-knowledge, legal issues, group facilitation, conflict management, public speaking, networking and diversity management,” said Ms Mastura Jamodien, Student Development Officer

“The Women in Leadership Programme is a collaborative project between the CPUT and the Universities of the Western Cape (UWC), Stellenbosch (US) and Cape Town (UCT). The programme was launched in 2004 and is funded by the Telkom Foundation,” she said.

“The programme is an effort to address challenges women face. The aim was to give female students an opportunity to compete with their male counterparts on an equal basis. The emphasis is placed on increasing leadership opportunities and to provide support to women students,” added Ms Jamodien.

Written by CPUT News
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

As gateways to knowledge, libraries play an important role in the development of communities.

This fact was recently highlighted when the CPUT Wellington Library, in collaboration with the Faculty of Education and the Wellington Public Library, hosted a community outreach event at the Wellington Skills School. The event formed part of the South African Library Week themed “My library, your library.”

“Our goal is to expose learners to a library and show them what it offers and how it can contribute to their development,” says Manager of the CPUT Wellington Library, Joanne Arendse.

“We want to bring libraries into their hearts and lives.”

As part of the outreach CPUT Education lecturers and students presented a woodwork skills development workshop, which aimed at showing learners the role information can play in the process of constructing an item. CPUT Libraries also presented an information literacy skills development group work session that focused on showing learners how to utilize information resources effectively, while the Wellington Public Library informed learners on the benefits of being a library member.

KNOWLEDGE: CPUT Librarian Naomi Williams coordinated the information literacy skills workshop

Acting principal of the Wellington Skills School, Dorothea Albanie welcomed the CPUT initiative and says such collaborations are important for the development of learners.

The skills school was established at the start of this year and provides learners who experience barriers to learning the opportunity to develop their full potential. The school offers a range of subjects such as woodwork, welding, arts and crafts, agriculture and hospitality.

Albanie says CPUT is the first tertiary institution to reach out to the school and that they look forward to building a strong partnership with the institution.

Written by Candes Keating
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Provides coverage for the Engineering and Applied Sciences Faculties; the Bellville and Wellington Campuses, and research and innovation news.

To succeed you must know yourself, have the right skills, develop knowledge and make the right decisions.

This was the mantra of Dr Valanthan Munsami, CEO of the South African National Space Agency (SANSA), who was the keynote speaker at the final Faculty of Engineering graduation ceremony.

Munsami says although graduates have acquired a set of specific skills, they will now have to create a knowledge base by obtaining the necessary experience. He urged graduates to do this by looking for new avenues of learning and by exposing themselves to different opportunities.

“One of the most valuable things that I have learnt in my career is by listening. By listening you accumulate knowledge,” he says.

He also urged the graduating class to build a brand and one that represents excellence.

One such graduate, who is already building a brand, is Sosibo Nhlanhla, who was honoured for his academic achievements during the ceremony.

Nhlanhla, who obtained a National Diploma in Maritime Studies, was awarded the coveted Dean’s Medal. He achieved distinctions in all 31 of his subjects, boasting an impressive average of 86.6 %.

Written by Candes Keating
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Provides coverage for the Engineering and Applied Sciences Faculties; the Bellville and Wellington Campuses, and research and innovation news.

It’s up to South Africa’s future engineers to find solutions to the problems facing the continent and the rest of the world.

Humbulani Mudua, Chief Director of Space Science at the Department of Science and Technology, urged graduates from the Faculty of Engineering to become innovators, dreamers, industrialist and developers.

He says the graduating class must address the problems facing the 21^st century and also explore how to evolve in thinking about and designing new technology for the future. Mudua also encouraged graduates to work collectively alongside others in various disciplines as well as to make use of the opportunities put in place by government to advance South Africa.

“Let’s unleash South Africa’s potential,” says Mudua.

During the ceremony, graduate Jean-Pierre Mostert was also recognized for his outstanding academic performance.

A BTech Electrical Engineering graduate, Mostert was awarded the coveted Vice-Chancellor’s Medal, which is an annual award given to the overall top achieving student.

Mostert obtained distinctions in 21 of 24 subjects, with an average of 87.4 % over all four years of study.

Written by Candes Keating
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Provides coverage for the Engineering and Applied Sciences Faculties; the Bellville and Wellington Campuses, and research and innovation news.

Break the rules, says Dr Tracey Naledi.

A public health specialist at the Western Cape Department of Health, Naledi urged graduates from the Faculty of Applied Sciences to simply not accept all rules.

It is not easy to determine what rules to break and what not to, but the development of society is about questioning the rules, says Naledi.

Referring to the late Nelson Mandela and the thousands who participated in Sharpville, Naledi says by questioning and breaking the rules of the time, South Africans today reap the benefits of living in a democratic society.

She says around the globe there have been rules that have had to be questioned, such as denying women access to higher education.

“The point is that some rules can be a source of injustice and great pain.”

She urged the class of 2016 to think about rules, look at them from multi-angles, research them and consult others.

“Make informed and concise decisions to follow, ignore or contradict the rules,” she says.

“Realise that your decisions will cost you. There will be consequences…be sure that you are willing to live with the consequences.”

Naledi says breaking rules requires responsibility and in some cases there will be mistakes.

“Making mistakes is a good thing…Every mistake is an opportunity for growth. It’s a teachable moment…because you are asking yourself ‘what happened’…you are reflecting.”

Written by Candes Keating
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Provides coverage for the Engineering and Applied Sciences Faculties; the Bellville and Wellington Campuses, and research and innovation news.