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Saide's Director, Jenny Glennie, was recently appointed by the Minister of Higher Education and Training to Chair the Interim Council of the new Sol Plaatje University. As part of the launch proceedings, she addressed the Award of Winners of the Architectural Competition, commenting on the role of the Council, and the vision of the University.
This is a truly inspiring occasion – to see the abstract concept of Sol Plaatje University coming to life through the architectural models and the drawings of the competitors is enormously heartening, particularly for us as the Interim Council. We have to ensure that Sol Plaatje University takes shape. This is an exciting task, but also a huge responsibility. It is exciting because Sol Plaatje University, together with Mpumalanga University, are the first universities to be established in our democratic era, and must therefore reflect our vision – of social and economic development of the region, of flourishing democracy and social justice - as well as of the values embodied in the Constitution.
Overseeing the establishment of Sol Plaatje University is also a heavy responsibility - we need to ensure that everything we do gives practical expression to the evolving vision and values. We are laying the basis of the culture and future practices of the institution. We need to act at every moment in a manner which would make Sol Plaatje proud.
One key commitment is to excellence in all that we undertake –in how we recruit our staff, in how organize our procurement, in how we govern, in how we hold ourselves accountable for our actions, and above all for the manner in which we organize teaching and learning. So for example, the curricula of Sol Plaatje University will be imbued with and celebrate the diversity of this remarkable region of our country - a region with a unique natural beauty, a distinctive heritage of the earliest inhabitants, a historical role in the industrial evolution of the country, and a future which grasps cutting-edge science through the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope and the technological potential of alternative sources of energy.
A key aspect of this excellence is a deep commitment to partnership and collaboration: with national and provincial government; with the municipality; with development initiatives in the region; with the private sector; with educational institutions across the region; and importantly with other universities across South Africa. Sol Plaatje University will be a compact and focussed university which will make the most of its collaborations and partnerships.
Today's occasion – the announcement of the various winners of the architectural competition - is a wonderful embodiment of that spirit of collaboration and partnership, thus ensuring that we build on the extensive creativity, energy, and goodwill present in our country.
The Interim Council is hugely appreciative of the underlying inspiring vision embodied in the spatial design developed through the New Universities Project at Wits set up and led by DHET in cooperation with the municipality: a vision of integration of university and city, at both a spatial and an intellectual level; of collaboration and sharing with institutions of learning in the city; of quality of student life through provision of residence, concern for student safety, walk ways, bicycle tracks; and so on. It is deeply gratifying to observe the role that the municipality has played in realising this vision.
As the spatial design turns into actual buildings, we will need to ensure that the spaces we create take forward emerging notions of a university in a digital age – an age where information is readily available at the click of a button; an age where educators spend less time conveying content and more time facilitating the sequencing, engagement with, and analysis and evaluation of this content; an age where student interaction with peers and experts is real and rewarding; an age where academic support is easily accessible. We have no doubt that the architects will take on this more detailed challenge with equal passion and dedication.
On behalf of the Interim Council, I would like to express our immense gratitude for the tireless and inspired work done by the Minister, the DG, the Acting DDG of Universities and her team, the New Universities Project, and the Administrator and Jurors of the competition in getting to this milestone. We would like to congratulate the winners of the competition, thank them and all the participants for their praiseworthy efforts and look forward to accompanying the winners in the next stage of this unfolding vision. |
