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
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CPUT hosted an Inter-institutional Extended Curriculum Programmes (ECPs) Symposium at the Granger Bay Hotel School.

The regional conference of Innovative Pedagogical Practices in ECPs saw delegates from all four universities in the Western Cape sharing best practices in teaching ECP students and addressing their academic challenges.

Access to ways of doing and thinking in disciplines has been an ongoing focus in the Department of Extended Curriculum at CPUT, but this year it wished to also highlight the more emotive and social barriers, which first year students may experience as well.

Delivering the symposium’s keynote address, Professor Jenni Case from the Centre for Research in Engineering Education at the University of Cape Town (UCT), addressed academic development in the mainstream by presenting a case study in UCT’s Department of Chemical Engineering.

The study found a demonstration of possible structural shifts in a mainstream undergraduate programme. She asked whether the co-option of industry ideas into the curriculum will be initially enabling however, ultimately, limiting in the broader sense of transformation.

CPUT lecturers Julian Hopley and Alex Noble discussed how a course in visual literacy was developed for foundation Architecture and Interior Design students.

 They said that the development of the course took into cognizance the background information about foundation students, namely, no previous art training nor 3D perception skills and poor mathematical skills.

Papers and discussions presented during the conference fell under a variety of themes, including the following:

Innovative uses of IT
Student personal development
Attitudes and emotions in learning
Innovative teaching methods
Curriculum design
Foundation structures and systems

Written by CPUT News
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A collaborative project in which Architectural Technology staff and students participated is among 30 design projects from around the world that were featured in an exhibition in the United States.

The Design for the Common Good (DCG) International Exhibition opened last month at the Metropolitan State University of Denver’s Center for Visual Art and showcases public interest design projects from six continents and 22 countries.

Dr Rudolf Perold, the senior lecturer of Architectural Technology and Interior Design, said alumnus Clint Abrahams approached him to participate in a live project in Macassar with BTech Architectural Technology students from CPUT.

Abrahams is an architect and lecturer at the School of Architecture, Planning & Geomatics at UCT and founder of the community development organisation Studio Light. In 2020, he was awarded a UCT creative works award for his design-build exhibition ‘Who We Are Macassar'. Other participating institutions included RWTH Aachen University, PBSA Dusseldorf University and Stadio.

“The aims were to involve students in assisting the community of Macassar to create a shared space to gather and to celebrate stories from the community,” said Perold. During 2019 the students and educators worked with members of the Macassar community to design and then build the structure.

In a journal article on the project, the authors state that the township began building an ongoing community engagement project facilitated by a non-profit organisation that sought to uncover sustainable forms of community-institutional exchange. The exhibition runs until March 19.

Written by Ilse Fredericks

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