Dear UJ community,
This coming week will see the start of our University’s academic programme, with classes and other educational activities officially beginning on the 12th of February. It is worth noting that universities across South Africa receive many applications for a very limited number of spaces.
For instance, approximately 340,000 applicants submitted more than 600,000 choices to study at our University, and we had to balance these numbers against less than 11,000 available first-time entering spaces. This clearly shows that our university is a university of choice for many matriculants! We are acutely aware, however, that the registration period remains an intense time for University staff as well as prospective students and their parents and/or guardians alike.
Striving towards a model for student registration in the higher education sector
I wish to thank our entire University team for working together and ensuring the success of the 2024 registration period. Professor Sehaam Khan, our Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic owns the University’s enrolment plan, and she was supported by the Registrar, Prof Bettine van Vuuren, and the rest of the Management Executive Committee (MEC) members and several of their divisions who provided support and direction. As you can see, our successes are a true team effort!
In this time, our university has also attracted a lot of media attention for piloting biometric facial recognition. This project, driven by Dr Tinus van Zyl (Senior Director: Central Academic Administration (CAA)), is a first for a South African university and follows on previous innovations from the CAA team, including graduate certificates that are blockchain-secured and digital certificates that can be exported to LinkedIn. It is no wonder UJ is regarded as the leading South African University for innovation!
New beginnings for first-year undergraduate students
This week, our first-year undergraduate students had the opportunity to attend orientation programmes, also known as the First Year Seminars (FYS). The programmes, which adopt a blended approach, combining face-to-face sessions and online self-paced modules to enrich the learning experience, play a pivotal role in integrating first-time incoming students into the university and faculty environment and acquainting them with UJ’s campuses and facilities. It was pleasing to see our new students brimming with excitement. Of course, I also encountered a few nervous faces, which is completely normal.
An enriching living and studying environment
I hope our new students are ready to embrace this opportunity and to engage in a dynamic and intellectually stimulating learning environment. If you have challenges navigating through any support services, do not hesitate to contact the relevant domains for assistance. If, for whatever reason, you feel overwhelmed, do not hesitate to contact our Centre for Psychological Services and Career Development, otherwise known as PsyCaD. We have well-trained and dedicated staff who are on hand to help you – free of charge. For the relevant contacts, including toll-free numbers, visit our website, www.uj.ac.za.
You can also interact with our WhatsApp service (087 240 6854) to get more information on a variety of topics, including information on finance matters, bus schedules, lecture timetables, etc. Look out for my interview on our university television station, UJTV, this coming Monday at 12 pm , where I reflect on my first year in office and look ahead to the new year.
Félicitations Bafana Bafana
On Wednesday evening, South Africans watched with bated breath as our senior national football team, Bafana Bafana, took on Nigeria in the Africa Cup of Nations semi-finals crunch match. It was not to be for Bafana Bafana, as they narrowly missed out on securing a spot in the finals of the continental showpiece. However, to qualify for the semi-finals for the first time after 24 years is a feat worth celebrating, especially after eliminating football powerhouses like Morocco, the number-one ranked country in Africa for the sport.
I hope the team will build on this success to ensure that our national team is the formidable force they used to be in the 1990s. I also hope the success of the national sport teams will inspire our UJ teams to do even better, following their outstanding performances across various sporting codes in recent years.
Ke a leboha, ngiyabonga, thank you, baie dankie!
Professor Letlhokwa Mpedi: Vice-Chancellor and Principal
Times mentioned in this newsletter refer to the South African time zone.
