Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

THIS MAJOR Eastern Cape university, with its headquarters in Port Elizabeth, is the result of the merging of three separate higher education institutions from the past: the University of Port Elizabeth that opened its doors in 1964, the Port Elizabeth campus of Vista University dating from 1982, and the Port Elizabeth Technikon which has its roots in South Africa’s oldest art school that was founded in the city in 1882. The merger between these three institutions took place in 2005.

According to the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University itself, the new institution ‘brings together the best traditions of technikon and university education, and draws on more than a century of quality higher education, in a new kind of university that offers a wide range of academic, professional and technological programmes’.

These are delivered through six campuses spread across the extensive Nelson Mandela Metropolitan area of which Port Elizabeth is core city. A seventh campus is in George, a sizeable town situated more than 300 km down west along the coast. The university has seven faculties: Arts; Business and Economic Sciences; Education; Engineering, the Built Environment and Information Technology; Health Sciences; Law; and Science.

The effect of mixing university and technikon syllabi is particularly noticeable in the broad mix of qualifications offered by the Faculty of Engineering, the Built Environment and Information Technology. Undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in all the engineering specialities (for example, electrical, civil and mechanical) co-exist with degree and diploma qualifications in production, quality assurance,
quantity surveying, construction management, and many more.

The university has a large academic and non-academic staff of around 2 500. On the financial side, government subsidies make up only 50 percent of university income. A further 24 percent is derived from student fees. The remaining quarter comes from donations, income from contracts and
the sale of goods and services (including rental from residences).

Facts and Figures  at a Glance1

In 2006, there were 19,832 contact students and 4,413 distance students enrolled. Full-time students numbered 16,221 and part-time students 8,033. Of the students, 22,321 were South African citizens and 1,095 from other SADC countries, while 829 students were enrolled from non-SADC countries (actual data, 2006).

Table 1: Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University  - Summary of Enrolment Numbers (Actual data, 2006)2

   

Number of students enrolled per level of study

Major Field of Study

Total Number of Students (Headcount)

 Under- graduate degree/ diploma Post-graduate degree/ diploma Masters Degree Doctoral Degree Other qualifications (short courses, certificates etc.)
Science, Engineering & Technology 6,406 5,251 109 311 115 620
Business, Management & Law 7,224 6,415 166 396 32 215
Humanities and Social Sciences 9,242 7,843 532 498 124  245
Health Sciences 1,370 922 172 195 38 58
TOTALS 24,245 20,431 979 1,400 309 1,138
 Source: Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University  response

Table 2: Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University - Academic and Research staff (Actual data, 2007)

Major Field Of Study

Total Number (headcount)
Science, Engineering & Technology 186
Business, Management & Law 100
Humanities and Social Sciences 150
Health Sciences 52
Other (George Campus) 22
TOTALS 510
Source: Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University questionnaire response

 

[1] All data presented in this section is headcount data.
[2] Note that there are some small inconsistencies in totals of student numbers when broken down by gender and by level of study. This is due to the manner in which statistics are recorded.