Eating out: (From left) DVC Prof Thandabantu Nhlapo, Moonira Khan (executive director of student affairs), and VC and principal Prof Njabulo S Ndebele line up for food at Kopano last week.

For the past few months, Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Professor Njabulo S Ndebele, has been getting a taste of student life at UCT. He's been sitting in on classes and chatting to students around campus whenever the opportunity offers. Last week, he took another big bite. On Thursday evening, he visited Kopano to enjoy supper - soup, roasted chicken with rice and veg, and sponge cake with custard for dessert - with the residents there. The meal, said Prof Ndebele, was very tasty. And the portions generous. (The students would have preferred us not to mention that for fear that their rations will be cut back.) And because the kitchen staff didn't know he was coming, the evening's meals would not have been other than what students usually sit down to, Prof Ndebele added. The students agreed. Yummy, yes, but more or less par for the main course.