Campus announcements
UCT graduation and other updates
14 December 2018 | Campus AnnouncementDear students and colleagues
This campus announcement aims to inform members of the University of Cape Town community about:
1. December graduation and robing ceremony
Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng was officially robed as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town on 13 December, having served in the post since 1 July this year. UCT Chancellor Mrs Graça Machel invested Professor Phakeng with her robe of office at a ceremony that was held as part of a special graduation in the Sarah Baartman Hall.
The Vice-Chancellor celebrated her robing in the company of some 100 inspirational and special graduands from all six academic faculties, many of who were able to graduate thanks to donor funding which cleared their student debt. Among the congregation was a group of Golden Graduates, returning to their alma mater 50 years after their graduations in 1968.
Two more ceremonies were held on 13 December for the Faculty of Humanities and the faculties of Health Sciences and Law. On 14 December ceremonies are scheduled for the faculties of Commerce, Health Sciences (ceremony 2), Engineering & the Built Environment and Science.
A total of 1 885 students will graduate this season, including 118 doctoral and 780 master’s graduates. This will take the total number of students who graduated at UCT this year to over 7 300.
2. NSFAS applications
Prospective students who applied for National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) 2019 funding without submitting all supporting documents have until Friday, 14 December 2018, to submit all required documents. Applicants are urged to log in to their myNSFAS accounts to check whether they have submitted all required documents.
More than 400 000 applications were received for the 2019 application cycle, and 57 346 of those applications were found to have missing supporting documents during the evaluation process. Applications that do not include all required documents will automatically be rejected after Friday, 14 December 2018.
3. UCT 10% ‘Back to School’ discount voucher
After negotiation with the Finance Department at UCT, Bidvest Waltons is offering all UCT employees a 10% discount on their ‘Back to School’ online and retail purchases. To take advantage of this discount, enter voucher number UCT999 at step four of the ordering process.
The voucher is valid for one purchase only from 19 November 2018 to 31 January 2019. Delivery for online purchases can be made at your preferred address (R85 courier fee) or your nearest Bidvest Waltons outlet.
4. SRC vision and mission
The newly elected UCT Students’ Representative Council (SRC) has adopted their vision and mission for their term of office, which commenced on 1 November 2018. The vision is to foster an Afrocentric environment that promotes academic success and empowers students and workers through an intersectional and decolonial approach. The mission is centred around building an inclusive, diverse, Afrocentric environment where all workers and students feel empowered.
5. December time off
With operations slowing down as the festive season approaches, the UCT Executive has approved that, except where operational requirements do not allow for this, departments within the university will close at 12:30 on 24 December 2018 and reopen on 2 January 2019. This will apply to all staff (academic, research and PASS).
6. Call for proposals for digital open textbooks
The Digital Open Textbooks for Development (DOT4D) project in the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT) at UCT is offering grants of up to R80 000 to educators to support the development of digital open textbooks in the UCT teaching and learning context. The grants may be utilised to support existing open textbook authoring and publication activity, or the conceptualisation and production of new open textbooks.
7. Get your data and IT in order before the holidays
If you’re taking some time off, leaving UCT or retiring, you may want to get your IT in order before departing.
8. New and improved printers for UCT
During December a campus-wide upgrade of printers will take place in the labs, libraries, document centres and various departments. Nashua’s printing contract ends in December 2018. After a request for proposals, Bytes Document Solutions (Xerox) was awarded the new contract. Their service will be introduced to campus over December and be fully functional by January 2019.
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