Pretoria - The Department of Higher Education and Training says plans are well in place to ensure that the two planned universities - Sol Plaatje University in the Northern Cape and the University of Mpumalanga are ready for their first student intake next year.
The new universities, the first to be built in post-apartheid South Africa, will have a small student intake in 2014 before expanding quickly over the next decade, says the Director General of the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) Gwebinkundla Qonde.
Addressing the media in Pretoria on Monday, Qonde said Mpumalanga University is expected to be officially launched at the end of this month.
In 2014, the universities will accommodate a modest initial intake 150 students at Sol Plaatjie and 140 in Mpumalanga and will operate from existing buildings, with new university buildings expected to open in 2015.
In the Northern Cape, the programmes will primarily be delivered at the Old Legislature Building which currently houses the National Institute for Higher Education (NIHE) in Chapel Street, Kimberley and the William Pescod School.
Given the rich heritage of Kimberly and the Northern Cape in general, the Sol Plaatjie University will specialise in heritage studies, including interconnected academic fields such as museum management, archaeology, indigenous languages, and restoration architecture.
The 2014 start-up programmes for the Sol Plaatje University in the Northern Cape will be Bachelor of Education (Senior Phase and Further Education and Training), a Diploma in ITC (Applications Development) and a Diploma in Retail Business Management.
The Bachelor of Education will accommodate 75 students, while the Diploma in Retail Business Management will accommodate 30 students and the Diploma in ITC a further 25 students.
Mpumalanga University is expected to specialise in agriculture and biodiversity linking into food security, natural resource management, nature conservation, plant and animal sciences, forestry and wood sciences, technology as well as wildlife management.
Its start-up programmes will be delivered at three different sites -- the Bachelor of Education will be delivered at the Siyabuswa Campus; the Diploma in Hospitality Management will be delivered at the Mpumalanga Regional Training Trust Hotel Academy in KaNyamazane, just outside of Nelspruit and the Bachelor in Agriculture will be delivered at the Lowveld College of Agriculture.
The Bachelor of Education will accommodate 100 students, while the Bachelor in Agriculture will accommodate 20 students and the Diploma in Hospitality Management a further 20 students.
With regards to the academic posts, Qonde revealed that positions had been advertised in the national press last weekend.
Meanwhile, with the demerger of Medunsa Campus and the University of Limpopo, Qonde says the department will be establishing a new university of health sciences.
These three new universities, combined with the expansion of the Further Education and Training Colleges (FET), are set to deal with growing enrolments at higher learning institutions.
The department is also expanding the FETs with12 new campuses to be located in Msinga, Umkhanyakude, Nkandla, Sisonke and Muden in KwaZulu-Natal; Balfour in Mpumalanga; Thabazimbi and Giyani in Limpopo; and Aliwal North, Graaff-Reinet, Sterkspruit and Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape. – SAnews.gov.za
