KwaZulu-Natal Business 2023-24

OVERVIEW
national distance university, the University of South Africa (Unisa),
has a presence in five locations. USB Executive Development offers
business courses for executives.
UKZN has close to 40 000 students studying on five campuses
in two cities. Greater Durban hosts Howard College, Berea
(environment, engineering, law, humanities) and the Nelson
Mandela School of Medicine at Congella. The UKZN administration
and the Graduate School of Business are based at Westville (also
science, engineering and health) whereas the Edgewood, Pinetown,
campus focusses on education.
The Pietermaritzburg campus offers a broad academic
programme but its specialities are fine art, theology and agriculture.
UKZN also hosts the National Research Foundation.
The Durban University of Technology (DUT) has six faculties
operating in seven campuses in Durban and in the Midlands. DUT is
well known for its outstanding graphic-design school and offers one
of only two chiropractic programmes in South Africa.
The University of Zululand offers diploma and degree courses on
two campuses at Empangeni and Richards Bay.
Several provincial government departments make tertiary
bursaries available to qualifying students, including Agriculture and
Rural Development, Human Settlements, Public Works, Transport
and the Treasury. The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS)
supports 26 public universities across the country in advancing
payment of registration fees for poor students.
The private sector also actively supports education through
bursaries. A crowdfunding platform set up by Standard Bank, the
Feenix Trust, raised more than R35-million in three years to support
more than 1 000 students. The bank’s Ikusasa Student Financial Aid
Programme (ISFAP) provides bursaries for students from families
earning less than R600 000 per annum.
Schools
KwaZulu-Natal has 2.8-million school pupils, many of whom are in rural
areas. With 30% of South Africa’s pupils in its schools, the province’s results
have a big bearing on how the nation fares in annual examinations.
There is now near universal access to primary and secondary schooling
and a new drive to enrol pre-school children in Grade R has achieved
ONLINE RESOURCES
KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education: www.kzneducation.gov.za
National Research Foundation: www.nrf.ac.za
National Skills Authority: www.nationalskillsauthority.org.za
uMfolozi TVET College: www.umfolozicollege.co.za
a 70% success rate. The province
has 1 689 early childhood
development centres. Transport is
provided to 350 schools, covering
59 000 pupils, and 2 400 bicycles
have been made available under
the Shovakalula programme.
A primary school in the
Harry Gwala District was the site
of the launch of an e-learning
infrastructure programme that
is intended to be rolled out
to rural areas throughout the
province. Digital access will
allow pupils in remote areas
to be connected to the best
teachers in the province.
The unbundling from the
successful Curro group of a
separate tertiary entity which
listed on the JSE as Stadio
Holdings is a good indicator of
the growth of the private sector
in education.
Stadio currently has three
institutions: Southern Business
School, AFDA (the School for
the Creative Economy) and the
Embury Institute for Higher
Education which has a campus
in Musgrave, Durban. There are
seven schools in KwaZulu-Natal
operating under Curro brands.
Advtech, the other big
private company in the sector,
already has 27 tertiary campuses
nationally, in addition to its
78 schools operating under
a variety of labels. Advtech
operates 10 educational sites
in KwaZulu-Natal, including
schools such as Crawford and
Trinity House, a chefs’ school
(Capsicum), three Varsity
Colleges and the Design School
for Southern Africa. ■
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KWAZULU-NATAL BUSINESS 2023/24