CPUT students have donated a R25 000 cheque to assist with renovations and redesign of the Red Cross Children’s Hospital.

The first-year Marketing students raised the funds during the Department’s Market Day earlier this year, which saw them sell various types of foods and beverages on the District Six Campus.

The students were divided into groups to execute the project and the following groups excelled and were awarded certificates: The Red Cross Warriors group raised the most funds, the Utopia won the Best Creative Stall, while the Thrifts and Treats walked away with Creative Branding Concept and Sugar Babies the Best Creative Writing Skills.

Departmental Head Mandy Jones said the project is one of CPUT’s Community Engagement pillar as it provides the students with opportunities to collaborate with both the society and sponsors.

Jones congratulated the students for their contribution towards the aims of the Red Cross Children’s Hospital and emphasised the importance of their contribution to society.

Lecturer Tania Pietersen said that the Market Day Project was born out of the subject, Personal Selling, as an ideal opportunity for students to sell products.

Pietersen added that the initiative gave the students a chance to apply the knowledge obtained in class as they used social media to promote what they were selling and that knowledge acquired from quite a few subjects was integrated into the project.

During the Cheque Handover/Award Ceremony’s event recently held at District Campus, Pauline Solomons, Fundraising & Bequest Relationship Officer at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital Trust, conveyed “sincere appreciation” for the work done by the students in contributing towards the upgrade of the hospital’s Emergency Centre.

Solomons invited the students to visit the oldest children’s hospital in the country, which is situated near Rondebosch, since they were now its shareholders.

Lecturer and the Project’s co-ordinator, Lawrence Mandhlazi, advised the students that when hiring employers are not just looking for a brilliant student, but also consider students’ community engagement activities. He added that the students were awarded marks for their work in the project.    

Written by Kwanele Butana
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Challenges based on The Apprentice reality show has helped give a group of CPUT students a project with a purpose.

First-year marketing students recently competed against each other for marks over the three-week-long assessment.

All promotions took place at the Cape Town Campus and were planned, designed and orchestrated by the students themselves.

“The students had to create the design and layout of their brand as well as creating awareness of it,” explains lecturer Ayesha Reiners.

“They had to do everything from advertising and fundraising to establishing social network sites to promote their brands.”

Each group had to elect its Chief Executive Officer who then appointed students into specific roles in their team after going through their CVs.

Without a Blink Production promoted photographer Luke Jansen by printing and selling mocked-up versions of magazine cover pages for R10 each to students.

Another team, Centre Stage Promotions, promoted performing artists and featured a guest performance by new Hip Hop sensation Swiff D who set the Student Centre alight with scintillating tracks from his album, Death to Life.

Copies of the album and drinks were given away to entice the audience.

Written by Kwanele Butana

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Discipline, commitment such as sticking to daily targets and reviewing them regularly saw a determined student completing her doctoral degree on record time.

Prominent Choto graduated with Doctor of Commerce: Marketing during this morning’s Digital Graduation and the title of her thesis was Marketing and Management Framework to Create Sustainable Healthcare Sector Non-Profit Organisations in South Africa.

Prominent was supervised by Professors Chux Iwu and Robertson Tengeh.

“Graduating with a doctoral degree has brought a great sense of self-fulfillment as it has always been my dream to reach the highest level of education,” says the mother of one. “It also feels great to finally complete, and relieves a lot of pressure that comes with studying a doctoral degree.”

She adds that the most exciting part is being able to set a good example for other academics and being a role model to her son, Joshua.

Prominent says she was also fortunate to have committed and competent supervisors who guided her throughout her studies. “In addition, research support in the form of workshops and financial assistance from CPUT played a key role in the completion of my studies.”  

Marketing has always been one of her passions since she enrolled at CPUT in 2010 and that helped her to build a strong foundation of business skills that are applicable to any industry.

“Thus, primarily the motives to pursue my doctoral degree in Marketing were career-related reasons leading to personal fulfillment, professional development and [better] employment opportunities,” says the tenacious graduate.

Prominent’s advice to students who dream of completing their doctoral degrees is: “You are the key role player in your academic journey. A little contribution a day makes a difference, with commitment, and willingness to put in the effort you will get there.”

Written by Kwanele Butana
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Marketing students were recently treated to a full day of inspiring networking sessions by renowned industry pioneers in a series of workshops.

The workshops were organized by the CPUT Marketing Society as its highlight event for this year and were attended by students from CPUT, the University of Cape Town and the University of Western Cape.

The aim of the event was to create familiarity around the process of campaign development from strategy to creativity.

The theme was “Out of the Box” as the Marketing Society believes that when marketers start thinking out of the box, magical things happen.

The pioneers created an understanding of how strategy is turned into creative output through the campaigns and the advertisements we see around us.

These included digital content such as art direction and online public relations management.

The experts also presented a holistic insight into industry trends, branding communications and creative strategy as well as how everything is all connected.

The keynote speakers were Scott Grey, Head of Innovation at Quirk and Ross Chowles, Executive Creative Director at The Jupiter Drawing Room (Cape Town).

Chowles, Di Charton, Managing Director at Red and Yellow School of Advertising, and Denver Jacob, Managing Director and Founder of ForståCreative Interactive Agency, later ran exciting and informative workshops for the students.

Formed in 2013 to support marketing students at CPUT to gain access to career opportunities in the industry, the society uses a combination of workshops and mentoring relationships to expose students to a variety of industry networks.

Written by Kwanele Butana
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To add value to the quality of its academic programmes, the Faculty of Business and Management Sciences has this year sent 10 deserving students to European universities as part of its International Exchange Programme.

The students recently joined the faculty’s partner universities in France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands where they will attend class for the next three months.

The students are in the departments of Office Management and Technology, Marketing, Retail Business Management, and Entrepreneurship.

The Office Management and Technology students departed in April while the other departments left this month.

The student are selected by their respective departments, and once accepted into the programme they receive sponsorship from the faculty for travel, accommodation and subsistence expenses.

The faculty’s Associate Dean, Ivan van der Heever, met with the students before their departure to wish them well on their journey.

Van der Heever encouraged the students to commit to their studies and to enjoy their new surroundings and make the most of the opportunity.

The faculty’s programme has been running for over ten years and receives 30 students every semester from 15 partner universities in Europe. As part of the exchange, the faculty has the opportunity to send students to the European universities every year.

For more information contact the programme’s Co-ordinator, Nizaam Peck, on 021 460 8392 or visit room E3.33B in the Engineering Building at the Cape Town Campus.

Written by Kwanele Butana
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Marketing, advancement and communication practitioners from higher education institutions across the country are gathering at the Bellville campus for the annual MACE congress.

The three-day Marketing, Advancement and Communication in Education (MACE) congress, which concludes on Friday, provides opportunities for benchmarking, networking and professional development.

The congress will delve into a host of interesting topics including trends shaping the South African communication industry and protecting your institution in a world of fake news.

“CPUT is honoured to host this year’s conference and welcomes MACE delegates from universities across the country to our Bellville campus. Higher Education remains a dynamic space and events like these present an opportunity to network and learn from best practice. We hope the delegates will enjoy their time with us and leave the congress enriched,” said Dr Garth van Gensen, Director of CPUT’s Marketing and Communication Department.

The congress will incorporate the 2018 MACE Excellence Awards, which acknowledges the achievements of specialists and practitioners in marketing, advancement and communication in the tertiary education sector.

Written by Ilse Fredericks
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CPUT students have raised yet another donation to assist with renovations and the redesign of the Red Cross Children’s Hospital.

Hot on the heels of October’s cheque handover to the hospital by a different group of CPUT students, students in the Marketing and Entrepreneurship departments recently handed over a R30 000 cheque to the Red Cross Children’s Hospital.

Last month, Business and Information Administration (BIA) students donated a cheque of R54 300 to the hospital. This took the total donations the hospital received from BIA students in the last ten years to R430 685.

During the recent official cheque handover Marketing lecturer Tania Petersen explained that for years the university hosted annual Market Days to raise funds for worthy causes but these were disrupted by campus unrest.

Petersen added that the students in the audience were members of groups that raised the most funds for the project in their respective departments. She congratulated the students for a challenging job well done.

This was the first time students in the two departments were donating money to the hospital as in previous years they donated to other charity organisations.

The Head of the Marketing Department, Mandy Jones, said Petersen once won a teaching award as a result of her coordination of the fundraising project.

“It’s not only about the money but also about impacting learning on the students as the skills obtained from the project will remain with the students forever,” said Jones.

Dr Lawrence Tengeh, Head of the Entrepreneurship Department, said the university wants to produce entrepreneurs who are responsible. “You are showing us that once you have a lot to give you’ll give back to the community,” said Tengeh.

Pauline Solomons, a Fundraiser at the Children’s Hospital’s Trust, said the hospital’s doors are open to the students for a tour as well as to ask about anything they need to know about the hospital. She encouraged the students to continue giving donations to the hospital.

Written by Kwanele Butana
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Thousands of prospective students have kick-started their futures by visiting CPUT’s Virtual Open Day, and learners are encouraged to explore future career options on this innovative platform. 

Open Day is the biggest marketing event of the institution. For the first time this year, CPUT opted for a Virtual Open Day, which prospective students can experience anywhere and anytime.

“Our mandate is to ensure prospective students make an informed decision about their career futures. This year, we had a live and interactive Virtual Open Day that allowed prospective students to get first-hand information on CPUT programmes and services,” said Thandokazi Mtshekisa, student recruitment officer in the Marketing and Communication Department.

She said all faculties and departments came on board to ensure the event's success.

On the live event day on May 14, visitors could attend webinars, visit programme exhibition stands and ask questions via a chat feature.

Learners who could not log in during the live event do not have to worry; the platform will be available for six months, and prospective students can still navigate the site to get course information.  

“I would like to encourage the learners to use this platform and check their first to third choice of study across all six faculties. They can also post their queries, which will be forwarded to the relevant department for a response,” said Mtshekisa.

The event organised by the Marketing and Communication Department saw the CPUT community come together to offer learners a unique experience, and it has proven to be a success.

Pre- Event

79 course and support service stands were built

72 departmental and course videos were recorded

72 course brochures were updated

6 exhibition halls, lobby and webinar venue were designed

General

A total of 14 396 registrations

13 523 logins by attendees

9012 unique logins

Booth Attendance

35 839 booth visits

26 458 total menu clicks

Webinars

3227 webinar views

The Virtual Open Day site can be accessed at https://cputopenday.vfairs.com

Written by Ilse Fredericks

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Academic success comes in different forms for everyone, and Summa Cum Laude is one of the highest honours to be bestowed on a student.

The Business and Management Sciences faculty celebrated this success with two students today.

Monwabisi Luthuli is a well-known figure at CPUT since he was once a popular SRC president. Luthuli says that while student politics was thrilling, he wasn’t achieving the academic success he knew he could achieve early on in his studies.

“I was very active as a student leader, and that compromised my academics, but then as I matured, I decided to come back to CPUT and completed my diploma, and passed all my subjects with distinction, and then I continued to the Advanced Diploma and also just passed Summa Cum Laude now,” he says.

“It has been an absolute great pleasure returning to CPUT.”

A fellow Advanced Diploma in Marketing classmate, Nkaiseng Mokhele, also received the top honour. She says she has always been a good student and achieved excellent marks because she listened to lecturers.

“Dedication, focusing and doing what the lecturers tell you to do has been my recipe for success. The pandemic was tough for me because I lost loved ones during this time, but I told myself that my goal is to graduate.”

To pass Summa Cum Laude, a student must pass all their subjects with distinction on the first try.

Luthuli and Mokhele were part of a cohort of 431 students who graduated during the afternoon ceremony at CPUT’s Bellville campus today.

Written by Lauren Kansley

Tel: +27 21 953 8646
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Liaises with the media and writes press releases about interesting developments at CPUT.

Zandile Natasha Genuka was just 21 when her life plans came to a devastating halt in 2021 when she suffered a light stroke - just weeks after giving birth.

She spent three months in Intensive Care, unable to walk or talk and battling to remember basic information.

Zandile, who was studying towards an Advanced Diploma in Marketing, had to make the difficult choice to take a gap year from her studies in 2022.

The journey to recovery was a long and challenging one but she never gave up hope. Her determination paid off – today she is celebrating her graduation.

“I'm so excited because when I look back to where I'm coming from, I never knew that I would accomplish what I've been praying for. It took a lot of prayer for me not to give up on my dream,” said the new graduate who originally hails from Qonce (King Williams Town).

“There is no elevator to success, we all have to take the stairs. You can’t give up because of the obstacles you face in life.”

Looking back on her journey, Zandile said that after her discharge “she had to start over” and her days were filled with occupational therapy and speech therapy sessions as well as physiotherapy “to train myself to walk”.

She said she managed to pass the two modules she was doing in 2021 with the support of her lecturers, Zandile Mxaku and Nayeema Bray.

In 2022 she decided to take a gap year to focus on her health and returned to her studies in 2023 to complete her remaining modules.

“I managed to pass the modules and I appreciate the support given by Ms (Mandy) Jones my head of department at the time and also Dr Rodney Duffett who never got tired of explaining the same thing over again.”

She is now enrolled for her postgraduate studies in Business Administration.

Written by Ilse Fredericks
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