The Department of Student Affairs and Support Services gave this year’s first years a warmest welcome to CPUT which they are bound to remember for years to come.

This week, the department hosted two events on Cape Town and Bellville campuses which saw performances by some of the biggest musicians who are making international headlines and dominating airwaves on radio and television stations across Southern Africa.

MAESTROS: Micasa band performs songs from their album Micasa Music, which scooped the Best Dance Album Award at last year’s South African Music Awards, to the delight of thousands of CPUT students.   

Besides the well-travelled Cape Town band Hot Water, other major attractions were the multi-award winning Micasa as well Kalawa Jazzme Records’s sizzling hot newcomer, Dr Malinga.

Micasa performed songs from its album Micasa Music, including the hit These Streets, which scooped the MTN Record of the Year at last year’s South African Music Awards.

Dr Malinga, of the hit song Via Orlando fame, bedazzled the crowd on both events with interactive performances filled with energetic and acrobatic dance moves that left the thousands of students asking for more.

Hectic Nine 9 presenter Laurian Nortjie and Expresso presenter Danine Naidoo, a CPUT alumna, directed the programme and interacted with the crowd by giving away prizes to the students who volunteered to perform popular songs and dance moves.

Apart from the support services departments and student societies running information stalls during the events, there was also a big screen showing an array of support services available to CPUT students.

The events were sponsored by Cell C, Mountain Dew and Chefs.

By Kwanele Butana

Written by CPUT News

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Construction work on the new Mechanical Engineering building is progressing at a rapid rate, with one section of the facility earmarked for completion by the end of April.

The building, which is being constructed in phases at the Bellville campus, will be connected via a passage to the existing Mechanical Engineering building. If all goes as planned the last phase of the building will be completed by the end of the 2010 academic year.

Measuring 5 000 sqm, the new building will have the capacity to house 1 800 students and 70 staff members.

Head of the Cape Town Mechanical Engineering Department, Tjaart van der Schyff, said the move to construct a new facility at the Bellville campus is part of the consolidation process of the institution.

Currently Mechanical Engineering programmes are on offer at the Cape Town and Bellville Campuses. The new facility will allow the department to relocate all Cape Town staff, students and facilities to the Bellville Campus.

This consolidation process follows that of several other departments in other faculties, which have either consolidated at the Bellville or Cape Town campuses.

Van der Schyff said they have already started the consolidation process by locating all 2010 first year students at the Bellville Campus.

More students and staff are soon expected to take occupation of phase one of the building, which is scheduled to be completed at the end of April. This section, which is adjacent to the front of the existing Mechanical Engineering building, consists of several classrooms and staff offices.

“The remainder of the department will move in 2011,” said van der Schyff.

The two-story building will consist of several hi-tech laboratories, workshops, lecture theatres, classrooms and staff rooms. Existing laboratories will also be extended.

Head of the Bellville Mechanical Engineering Department Zwelethu Ngewana, said space has also been allocated to house 15 doctoral students while a section of the existing building will be revamped to house 40 Master’s students. Provision has also been made for a study area for undergraduate students.

The building will also house the Industrial Systems Engineering Department.

Ngewana said consolidating the departments is a huge task. He said once the building is completed, they will have to look at moving all equipment stationed at the Cape Town Campus to the new building.

“It is going to be a huge operation to transport all the equipment,” he said.

However, Ngewana said they are looking forward to the completion of the building and operating the department from one site.

By Candes Keating

Photos: (top) The new Mechanical Engineering Building begins to take shape. (bottom) Mechanical Engineering students, seen here performing class work, will soon be able to use the building’s new facilities.

Written by CPUT News
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The Education Faculty’s Prof Janet Condy is calling for a new curriculum which provides deep, life-worthy learning that is purposeful and of a higher level of complexity.

Condy made the call when she delivered her Inaugural Professorial Lecture on Literacy Issues at the Bellville Campus on Monday evening. “Our CAPS curriculum needs content pruning to foreground the relevant 21st-century competencies: critical thinking and problem-solving, creativity and innovation, collaboration and teamwork, communication and informational literacy in technologically driven learner-centred teaching and learning that is purposeful,” said Condy.

After teaching in mainstream and special schools for 19 years, she won an Ambassadorial Rotary Scholarship and spent a year in Boston, America, studying ‘reading’.

She adds that three major influences emerged from this experience. “Firstly, I was introduced to the International Literacy Association; secondly, I developed a love for the teaching of reading; and thirdly, this love of teaching reading became juxtaposed with a love of research.”

The C2 NRF-rated researcher also discussed the role of the teacher, current debates around the provision of education in South Africa, the impact of poverty and illiteracy as well as the teaching of comprehension.Prof Sarah Howie, Director: Africa Centre for Scholarship at Stellenbosch University, responded to Condy’s lecture and highlighted some critical issues which had emerged from it.

Howie said Condy’s story of scholarship serves as an inspiration to aspiring scholars and described her as a reflective practitioner, change agent and empowerer, pioneer, realist, analyst and activist.

She said Condy’s work triggers questions pertaining to the relationship between the intended curriculum (what the society wants learners to learn), the implemented curriculum (what the teachers teach in the classroom) and the attained curriculum.

Vice-Chancellor, Prof Chris Nhlapo, said Condy’s students are engaging each other as equals. Nhlapo thanked her for her contribution towards the development of the nation’s youth and praised her for always being a CPUT champion.

Written by Kwanele Butana

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Internationalisation has become an entrenched feature in higher education, where students and staff exchange opportunities, collaborative online learning, and collaborative qualification offerings have become the norm.

As such, the Faculty of Business and Management Sciences (FBMS) recently hosted a three-day International Week at Granger Bay and Bellville campuses. The event was attended by the Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships Directorate, national and international academic, industry partners, and government representatives, both in person and online.

The industry partners included: ABSA, Sea Harvest and the South African Institute for Government Auditors. The government officials were from the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape provincial government. Speaking at the event, Assistant Dean: Teaching and Learning: FBMS, Prof Desiree Scholtz, said the benefits of these endeavours are unparalleled in creating life-long learning experiences. Scholtz said the operative word “here being ‘experience’ since the experience of being abroad is a life-long encounter”.

“Internationalisation opens new vistas of thinking, knowing, and doing that no theoretical learning can offer. The CPUT, and more importantly here, the FBMS has a growing number of partnerships in the Euro Zone, BRICS countries, Africa, and Canada with additional agreements being signed on a regular basis,” she noted.

Scholtz said the value assigned to internationalisation endeavours extends beyond developing academic prowess. “While the exchange of learning, teaching and curriculum is important to advance the academic agenda, we have found that personal engagement results in long-standing partnerships between departments and our faculty,” she said.

During the proceedings, delegates were given a slot to present an overview of their institutions. This started with the hosts, followed by other institutions such as the University of the Western Cape, the Polytechnic University of Porto, Portugal, the University of South Africa, and many more.

Reflecting on the conference, the organising committee chair, Andiswa Mrasi, said the FBMS Hybrid International Week is an annual event hosted by the FMBS.

Mrasi said the event's primary purpose is to create a platform where practitioners in the field of international education engage on important topics to enhance this discipline and share best practices. Mrasi, who is also a manager: Strategic Initiatives and Projects: FBMS, said: “This year, which marked the second Hybrid FBMS International Week was once again a resounding success. We were particularly pleased to witness the participation of local institutions.”

One of the event's highlights was the participation of local and international institutions, and the workshop on Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), presented by Dr Pieter Steenkamp from the Marketing Department and Simon Kavanagh from Kaospilot, Denmark.

“We are encouraged to see the growth in engagements pertaining to Internationalisation,” said Mrasi.

Written by Aphiwe Boyce

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