Graduates of the Faculty of Applied Sciences rose the roof this morning as they cheered on a classmate who had achieved one of the highest honours the University can bestow on its students.

Dean Berry, who graduated cum laude with a BTech degree in Horticulture, is also the recipient of the Vice Chancellor’s Medal. This medal is awarded to the top Btech student across all 6 Faculties. Berry achieved six out of six distinctions in his final year of study with an aggregate of 85%.

Four MTech degrees were also awarded to Nina Septoe, Andre Lambrechts, Jade North and Natalie Newman. These candidates’ graduated with their Masters Degrees from the Departments of Consumer Science: Food and Nutrition, Environmental Health, Horticulture and Nature Conservation, respectively, while Adegbenro Peter Daso and Janes Doughari Hamuel were awarded Doctoral degrees in the Environmental Health Department.

Guest speaker Dr Gansen Pillay, the Deputy CEO of the National Research Foundation of South Africa spoke passionately of the quality of research being done in South Africa.

He says that in moving from a resource-based to a knowledge-based economy, South Africa offered a wealth of opportunity for bright young graduates to exploit.

“We have to focus and prioritise education in South Africa. I advocate the concept of liberation through education – it’s the one thing that can never be taken from you. And at the centre of everything, excellence and integrity needs to be non-negotiable. “

Graduation continues this evening on the Bellville campus where the Faculty of Engineering holds its second ceremony. On Saturday, the Faculty of Education and Social Sciences holds the final two ceremonies on Cape Town campus that bring a week of Autumn graduation to a close.

By Jan Weintrob

Photograph by Clive Galant

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

Wholesale &Retail (W&R) SETA CEO Joel Dikgole had some sobering words for Faculty of Business graduates today. In his address to the latest crop of graduates from the Entrepreneurship, Event Management, Retail Business Management, Real Estate and Sport Management Departments, Dikgole drew attention to the scourge of poverty and unemployment in South Africa.

“With unemployment running at 25% and service delivery protests happening with alarming regularity, graduates must come up with innovative solutions to tackle these challenges.” Dikgole says that no country in the world can overcome such social ills without investing in skills development and education of all its citizens, as countries like Singapore, Japan and Korea did to become the economic giants they are today.

Dikgole’s sentiments were made a reality recently when the W&R SETA invested over R11 million to establish Africa’s first Wholesale & Retail (W&R) Leadership Chair in Africa, to be based at the CPUT. It is a direct result of the SETA’s initiative to cooperate with universities to encourage the production of academic and applied research in this sector of business.

Another highlight of today’s ceremony was the awarding The Vice Chancellor’s Medal to Nyasha Felistas Chikovo. Nyasha, who hails from Zimbabwe, registered for her National Diploma in Retail Business Management in 2010. She achieved distinctions in 28 out of the 30 modules she completed in her National Diploma and BTech degrees.

Graduates from the Building, Chemical Engineering, Cartography, Civil Engineering, Surveying, Construction Management and Quantity Surveying Departments are set to receive their diplomas and degrees this evening. The graduates are all from the Faculty of Engineering, who will be hosting this eight graduation ceremony on the Bellville campus.

Written by Janyce Weintrob
Tel: +27 21 460 3514
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.