CUT Annual Report 2011

CUT ANNUAL REPORT 2011 | 9
2020 – not only benefitting CUT, but also contributing to a broader
understanding of the role of universities of technology in the
developmental agenda.
The implementation of the STEPS process has required a great
deal of external support to ensure that CUT’s graduates and
innovations are aligned with industrial and developmental goals,
thus enabling the academic project to achieve and sustain socioeconomic
development through focused, applied knowledge and
innovation in both social and technological spheres.
The nine curricula mentioned above were prepared for submission
to the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) for
approval under CUT’s Programme Qualification Mix, and later to
the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) for accreditation.
Establishing strategic partnerships and enterprises to enhance
innovation has helped to build our foundations and enhance the
academic project.
CUT’s Centre for Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing (CRPM)
continues to be an important player in South Africa’s additive
manufacturing industry, with 496 projects being completed in
2011, and a titanium seminar – the first of its kind in South Africa
– being hosted as part of our 30th anniversary celebrations. To
enhance the technological platforms available for the CRPM, the
university has invested heavily in the purchasing of two new stateof-the-art
additive manufacturing machines that will increase our
capacity in this area.
In this broad area, medical device manufacturing has become a
specialty, with the Medical Research Council recognising this by
including CUT amongst other leading universities in the National
Medical Device Platform. The National Department of Science and
Technology has also awarded CUT a multi-million-rand chair in
Medical Device Research and Technology.
The IT Hub, a joint initiative between CUT and the Free State
Provincial Government (FSPG), was established in 2010 with the
purpose of strengthening the province’s software development
base. CUT is in partnership with the Johannesburg Centre for
Software Engineering based at Wits University and the Software
Engineering Institute based at Carnegie Mellon University in
the USA. The initial intake of 17 associate software developers
has completed the first phase of training, focusing on the
delivery of quality software solutions within a given budget and
timeframe and according to the client’s specifications and quality
expectations. This is revolutionary in an IT industry where budgets
for software-based systems are often exceeded.
In the field of social innovation and skills development, the
Educator Mentorship Development Project is a multi-million-rand
joint initiative with the Telkom Foundation, aimed at improving
the disciplinary knowledge and teaching skills of primary-school
educators in the fields of science, mathematics and technology.
This project has already been implemented in three schools in the
Bloemfontein area, with plans to expand on a national level and to
initiate a high-school strand of the project.
The projects mentioned above are presented to whet your
appetite about social and technological innovation – a revolution
that will certainly see long-term outcomes in the socio-economic
development of the Free State Province and the rest of the central
region.
In closing, I trust that the achievements I have chosen to highlight
will give some insight into the progress CUT is making in the
effort to firm up our academic foundations, enhance our academic
project, grow our research and innovation capital, and ensure
socio-economic development in the region.
We would not be able to engage in all these exciting developments
without the contributions and support of our strategic partners,
namely government, business and industry, as well as broader
civil society. The journey towards growing our region’s economy
and thereby making our region self-sufficient and free of poverty,
unemployment and inequality is a long and arduous one, but we
are confident that our partners will stand with us through thick
and thin.
Prof. Thandwa Mthembu
Vice-Chancellor and Principal