Tshwane University of Technology

THE SIZE of this institution is immediately impressive. It was established in January 2004 through the merger of three former technikons: Technikon Northern Gauteng, Technikon North-West and Technikon Pretoria. Accordingly, the Tshwane University of Technology has campuses in the most northerly four of South Africa’s nine provinces. In Limpopo province, the campus is situated in the provincial capital Polokwane. In Mpumalanga, there’s a campus in Nelspruit and another in eMalahleni (previously Witbank); and in North-West province a campus serves the sprawling peri-urban area called Ga-Rankuwa. Two campuses provide technical education to the northern parts of the densely populated Gauteng province, both in the Tshwane Metro, one in Soshanguve and the other, the main campus, in Pretoria.

According to the university, its annual student enrolments across all these campuses approach 60 000. Most are South Africans from the four provinces in question; but ‘large numbers’ are also drawn from neighbouring SADC countries such as Botswana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, and even Namibia. This accords well with the university’s avowed intention of making a significant contribution to creating sustainable economic growth, and hence general socio-economic development, in the entire Southern African region.

Seven faculties – Engineering and the Built Environment; Science; Humanities; Management Sciences; Information and Communication Technology; Arts; and Economics and Finance – provide ample choice for students interested in career-focused tertiary education. From architecture to polymer technology, from animal sciences to sport and rehabilitation, from applied languages to technology education, from hospitality management to tourism, from computer engineering to ICT management, and from economics to public sector financing – the choice is almost overwhelming in its breadth.

More than 60 percent of the hundreds of programmes on offer from the university’s 70 departments can be pursued to postgraduate level. All education offered at the Tshwane University of Technology has an entrepreneurial focus, which opens up business creation as well as job opportunities.

Facts and Figures  at a Glance1

There were 46,333 contact students and 5,113 distance students enrolled at the Tswane University of Technology in 2006. Of the student body, 49,401 were South African citizens and 1,495 from other SADC countries, while 550 were enrolled from non-SADC countries (HEMIS, 2006).

Table 1: Tshwane University of Technology - 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 18,036 17,504 1 404 72 146
Business, Management & Law 16,275 16,112 0 150 13  0
Humanities and Social Sciences 15,403 12,984 1,291 1,095 33 1
Health Sciences 1,732 1,568 0 47 11 15
TOTALS 51,446 48,168 1,292 1,696 129 162
Source: HEMIS data.

In 2006, there were 855 academic and research staff employed at the University, of which 344 were female and 511 male. Of the 239 management and administrative staff, 105 were female and 134 male (actual data, HEMIS, 2006).

 

[1] All data presented in this section is headcount data.
[2] Note that totals do not always tally exactly, most due to discrepencies when working with headcount versus FTE data.