Engineering & the Built Environment

The Faculty of Engineering & the Built Environment covers a broad range of engineering disciplines, which are currently being reformed to respond to the demands of regional, national and global industry priorities in engineering education. Through a range of multi-disciplinary research institutes and centres, the Faculty aims to integrate its education and research programmes into a cohesive system, providing students with modern technology platforms for relevant and industry-responsive education, with a high degree of work-integrated learning. These platforms include the Product Life Cycle Management Competency Centre, providing state-of-the-art education in product design through to simulation and life-cycle management, the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Laboratory, and the Centre for Substation Automation and Energy Management Systems, to mention a few. Through this approach, the Faculty aims to emerge as a major driver of socio-economic change in the region.

Regional, National and international partnerships provide an essential mechanism for research and technology transfer, while at the same time developing opportunities for student international experience. The Foundry Technology Programme with RWTH Aachen University of Technology, and the Satellite Technology Programme under the French South Africa Technology Initiative, amongst others, are high impact examples of such partnerships. Exchange programmes, such as those with Shanghai Dian Ji University and De Haagse Hogeschool, provide students with opportunities to participate in collaborative technology projects while developing multicultural and global perspectives.

As part of a University of Technology, our mandate requires participation in community-based and SME projects, with a strong emphasis on commercialisation, providing a platform for technology transfer and spin-off technology enterprises. In this way, we provide our students and researchers with opportunities to engage at the highest level of engineering and continue to impact on the development of high-end engineering skills as a basis for industrial competitiveness.

UPDATE: Communiques from the Dean

CPUT is in the process of starting new qualifications (such as the new Bachelor of Engineering Technology) and phasing-in / phasing-out old ones (such as the Diploma replacing the National Diploma, and the Advanced Diploma replacing the BTech), as required by the South African Department of Education. The new qualifications are introduced to align with the new Higher Education qualification sub-Framework (HEQSF) as Gazetted by the South African Department of Education on 2 August 2013. This is a requirement placed on all Higher Education institutions in the attempt to keep the curriculum relevant.

The last year Universities were allowed to register new students for the old qualifications was 2019, but students who are busy with the qualifications will be allowed enough time to finish. See below for letters giving more information about the phasing-out and phasing-in plans for each department, giving valuable information about how the phase-out will be handled.

Some qualifications have already been approved, but some are in the final stages of approval, and will be loaded onto the Applications System as soon as they are fully approved. Qualifications at CPUT have been widely benchmarked nationally and internationally.

Below are letters giving more information about the phasing-out of the National Diplomas, and phasing-in of the new Diplomas for each department, giving valuable information about how the phase-out will be handled.

For more information about the new qualifications, go to the "New Qualifications" page on the Engineering & the Built Environment website.

• Chemical Engineering
• Civil Engineering
• Clothing & Textile Technology
• Construction Management and Quantity Surveying
• Geomatics (Surveying and Cartography)
• Industrial Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering
• Mechatronics

IMPORTANT: Below are departmental letters about the offering of S1 & S3 and S2 & S4 subjects. As part of the phasing-out of the old National Diploma qualifications, some subjects will be repeated in semesters where they aren't usually offered, to assist students in completing their qualifications before they are phased out.

• Civil Engineering and Surveying Letter
• Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering Letter
• Industrial & Systems Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering - Mechatronics