October 10, 2006
By Thabang Mokoka
WITHIN 10 years, the University of Johannesburg aims to be firmly entrenched among the top three universities in the country.
Dr Ihron Rensburg, the vice-chancellor and principal, said, "We see this as a critical movement." He was speaking at the Waterford Restaurant, in the new School of Tourism and Hospitality, recently. "Our goal is to grow our Soweto campus."
"The possibility is in our hands to build a great university that can measure up to the City of Johannesburg," Rensburg said.
And the university is on track. The foundation has been laid for the development of a Centre of Entrepreneurship, which would develop into a Business School under the management faculty, on the campus. Taking the first step towards this development, the faculty of business and entrepreneurship already has expanded the range of studies on offer on the campus.
According to the institute's Highlight Book for 2005, the venture will not only deal with the needs and expectations of people in Soweto, but will also add value in terms of job creation through small and medium enterprises in the entrepreneurial economy of South Africa. The book tracks the institute's growth over the past year.
Last year's Highlight Book includes the opening of the School of Tourism and Hospitality. The school's new building on the Bunting Road campus cost about R47-million, and, according to the book, it is one of the first custom-built tourism and hospitality schools in the country.
Among other facilities it has a number of ultra-modern kitchens and two restaurants catering for fine dining, lecture rooms with modern facilities, computer laboratories, a bar and a wine cellar, as well as a 150-seater auditorium.
It is through these types of initiatives that the university aimed to be in the top three tertiary education institutes in the country within the next decade, Rensburg said.
"We believe that this nation will be a nation to be reckoned with."
Born out of the merger of Rand Afrikaans University and Technikon Witwatersrand on 1 January 2005, Johannesburg University was created to provide new opportunities for research and innovation across its nine faculties.
Traditionally universities and technikons were seen as two different entities, with a university providing a theoretical education and awarding degrees as qualifications and a technikon focusing on practical evaluation and awarding diplomas.
The new university has worked on its branding and has adopted a logo that depicts two orange birds, linked and facing each other. The link represents the union of the two institutions into one.
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