SPECIAL FEATURE Sol
SPECIAL FEATURE Sol Plaatje University First graduates celebrate as impressive new campus garners design awards. In 2017, Sol Plaatje University celebrated the graduation of its first cohort of Bachelor of Education students. The first intake of students at the Kimberley campus in 2014 was 124. There are now more than 1 000 students enrolled in a range of degree and diploma courses. Thirty-four of the graduates were immediately offered permanent teaching posts by the provincial Department of Education. Approximately 60% of the students are enrolled in teacher training courses. The university has set itself a goal of catering to specific niches, such as heritage studies. The McGregor Museum in Kimberley is one of the most respected museums in the South Africa and heritage tourism is seen as a growth market, so university students concentrating on this area will have good support and good prospects. The academic programme is housed in four schools: Education; Humanities; Natural and Applied Sciences; Economic and Management Sciences. Bachelor’s degrees are offered in education, science, science in data, commerce and arts. A diploma in retail business management (three years) and a one-year higher certificate in heritage studies completes the prospectus. Data science takes on extra relevance with the construction of the great radio telescope in the Northern Cape, the Square Kilometre Array. Astronomy-related courses are planned to dovetail with the SKA. The University of North West has a Centre for Space Research department and a campus in Mahikeng. An astronomical observatory has been located on the Mahikeng campus since 2015. The university is named after Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje, one of South Africa’s great intellectuals. One of his books, Native life in South Africa, tells the story in harrowing detail of how black South Africans were thrown off their land as a consequence of the 1913 Land Act. He was also a novelist, a translator and one of the founding members and first Secretary-General of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC), which became the ANC. Kimberley is part of the Sol Plaatje Local Municipality. Building a great campus Chances to build university campuses from scratch do not come about often. So the opportunity to create something special was seized upon for Kimberley’s newest educational facility. A competition was held to choose the architects to work on NORTHERN CAPE BUSINESS 2018/19 26
SPECIAL FEATURE the new university. From a total of 59 entries, nine firms were selected in 2013 to enter the second round of the competition. Ultimately, five firms were chosen as winners, and they would be tasked with completing work on the campus over the three years to 2016: Activate Architecture; Savage + Dodd Architects; designworkshop:sa; Comrie Wilkinson Cape and Urban Studio JV; Wilkinson Architects in Joint Venture with Mashilo Lampbrechts Architects and GXY Architects. Sol Plaatje University Library and Student Resources Building, designed by designworkshop: sa, won the 2017 Fulton Concrete Awards for “Buildings Greater Than 3-Stories”. The construction work was done by Murray and Dickson Construction and Aurecon provided structural, civil, electrical, fire and wet services design for the project. Another striking building, designed by Savage + Dodd, was “highly commended” at the World Architecture Festival in 2017, along with only one other South Africa entry, Cape Town’s Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art. The multi-purpose building (shown by day and night) encompasses a residence, offices, meeting spaces and retail space on the ground floor. The colourful, wind-driven louvres which act as sun shading were designed by Savage + Dodd Architects and executed by RVI Architectural Solutions. The project was a finalist in the Southern African Institute of Steel Construction (SAISC) awards. Funding and skills The Provincial Government of the Northern Cape made 9 736 bursaries available in 2017, jointly funded by national government, SETAs and the Premier’s Trust Fund. The Mine Managers’ Forum has made R1-million available for university bursaries in the 2018/19 year. The Namaqua Maths and Science project (NaMaSci) is a partnership between the Northern Cape Department of Education and the University of Stellenbosch which aims to help students in the Namakwa district gain access to tertiary study. Tutors offer holiday classes in Springbok The provincial government wants researchers at Sol Plaatje University to conduct a provincial skills audit to find out what skills are most needed by the local economy. Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges provide after-school skills training. The Northern Cape Urban TVET College comprises three campuses in Kimberley: City Campus and Moremogolo Campus and Phatsimang Campus where teacher training is done. At City Campus, students have access to three departments: business studies, engineering studies and a business unit that organises short courses in partnership with various public and private partners. At Moremogolo Campus students are offered courses in either the business studies or skills departments. In 2017 the College enrolled 2 340 students. The Northern Cape Rural TVET College has campuses at Kathu, Upington, De Aar, Kuruman and Namakwaland. These colleges offer students courses in finance, economics and accounting; engineering; IT and computer science; management; hospitality; marketing; and tourism. NCRTVET College has a variety of part-time programmes and short skills programmes delivered in the form of learnerships, internships or apprenticeships. This enables adults and employed people to study after hours or to do enrichment courses 27 NORTHERN CAPE BUSINESS 2018/19
