Cape Peninsula University of Technology

Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Motto Creating Futures
Type Public
Established 2005 as a merger of Cape Technikon (1920) and Peninsula Technikon (1962)
Chancellor Trevor Manuel
Vice-Chancellor Dr Prins Nevhutalu
Students Over 33,569 (as of December 2013)[1]
Location Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa
Campus Five campuses
Colours Blue and White
Nickname Cats
Affiliations AAU, CHEC, HESA
Website www.cput.ac.za

Cape Peninsula University of Technology, a university in Cape Town, South Africa, is the only university of Technology in the Western Cape province, and is also the largest university in the province, with over 32,000 students.

History

It was formed in January 2005 from the merger of the Cape Technikon and Peninsula Technikon, following years of change in the higher education landscape of South Africa. In 1993, the Technikons Act was promulgated, which allowed technikons to offer Bachelor's degrees (B.Tech), Master's and Doctoral degrees in Technology. In March 2001, Kader Asmal (then Minister of Education) announced the National Plan on Higher Education, and in May 2002 he announced the possible merger of the two institutions, with the national working committee also recommending the University of the Western Cape to be included in the merger. Towards the end of 2002, the final merger was announced, and in October 2003 the new name was approved. The Executive Interim Management was appointed towards the end of 2004.

Prof. L Vuyisa Mazwi-Tanga was appointed as the first Vice-Chancellor of CPUT in February 2006. Also at this time, the nine faculties of the original institutions were merged and re-organised into six: Applied Science, Business, Education and Social Sciences, Engineering, Health and Wellness Sciences, and Informatics & Design. A separate postgraduate unit was established to offer multidisciplinary postgraduate programmes and funded research known as the e-Innovation Academy, and as from March 2008 the Faculty of Informatics & Design Research Unit. The Department of Information Technology in collaboration with the Bridgetown Community, Athlone, COFISA and IDM launched the Athlone Living lab, a community ICT innovation project, in September 2008. This would be the first Living Lab in the Western Cape.

Trevor Manuel was appointed chancellor of the university in April 2008.

Foreign students (those from outside the SADC), are required to pay double the fees of local students. There are currently just over 2000 international students enrolled.

The university offers bursaries to master's and doctoral degree students.

Campuses

The Cape Town Campus, with Table Mountain in the background

CPUT has five campuses:

The Cape Town Campus is built on a portion of District Six.

Co-operative education

The large majority of courses offered by CPUT incorporate in-service training; the training consists of an internship, usually six months to a year. The University's comprehensive co-operative education policy ensures the student is placed within a company approved by the university; this ensures that institutional academic learning is incorporated into work-based content.

Sport

The university has a well known sports program.[2] A notable member of the basketball team is Brendan Mettler, who played in the starting lineup of the South Africa national basketball team at the 2011 African Basketball Championship in Madagascar.[3]

References

  1. ↑ "CPUT Facts and Statistics page". CPUT Management Information Services. Retrieved 11 December 2013.
  2. ↑ "Sports and Sports Development". Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Archived from the original on 13 March 2012. Retrieved 22 February 2012.
  3. ↑ "Brendan Mettler - 2011 FIBA Africa Championship". FIBA.com. Retrieved 22 February 2012.
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