University of Venda

THIS UNIVERSITY was established in the wake of the acceptance of ‘independence’ as a so-called homeland state. It is situated in Thohoyandou in the far north of South Africa. At first, after opening in 1982, the University of Venda was staffed by South Africans. Increasingly, however, academics were recruited from other African countries, and from other parts of the world. The result was a cosmopolitan feel, and ‘a
fertile environment for new ideas and a capacity for change’.

The university had originally been set up to offer the full range of courses in humanities, social sciences and natural and applied sciences. After the advent of democracy in 1994, and persuaded by the sustained ‘size and shape’ debate that led to the rationalisation of South African higher education, the university shifted its focus more pointedly to science and technology. The institution accordingly altered its name to the University of Venda for Science and Technology.

The shift has meant an increase in students and staff engaged in the sciences and in their application in health, agriculture and rural development. Five of the university’s eight schools are devoted to the new focus, namely: the School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences; the School of Environmental Sciences; the School of Agriculture, Rural Development and Forestry; the School of Health Sciences; and a School of Postgraduate and Integrated Studies. In 2008, around four percent of all students were engaged in postgraduate study.

Nor has this new focus been ignored by the corporate sector. Just two examples of corporate interest have been a new computer laboratory funded by PetroSA (this reduced the ratio of students to on-campus computers from 1:146 to 1:88); and an injection of over R1-million by Nissan South Africa into a university-run resource centre that enhances the accessibility to science and mathematics in local high schools.