Zelda La Grange, TUT Alumna and former secretary to the late President Nelson Mandela.
The Academic Excellence Awards are the institution’s most prestigious accolades program for Teaching, Learning and Technology (TLT), Higher Education Development and Support (HEDS), Research and Innovation (R&I). It is for staff members who have improved their qualification, those who have received or upgraded their rating from the National Research Foundation as well as teaching and research excellence.
Professor Lourens van Staden, Vice-Chancellor and Principal, said that the University’s output statistics were very encouraging. “Over 14 000 students graduated from the class of 2018. Such an achievement is a reflection of our staff’s commitment to quality education, excellence and professionalism. Indeed many academics have gone the extra mile, hence we remain a formidable force in higher education, both in South Africa and internationally,” he said.
Prof van Staden added that, because of staff’s contributions, TUT is currently the number one University of Technology in Africa. Early in November 2018, the World University Rankings have also ranked TUT among the top 1 000 universities globally. In the same report TUT’s Physical Sciences saw itself ranked among word-renowned universities such as Princeton, Harvard and Stanford, taking position 301 out of 400 in the world.
“This is concrete proof of TUT’s strong academic brand and academic project,” he added.
Faculties awarded their top researchers in the categories; Young Researcher, Woman Researcher, and Senior Researcher of the Year. Lecturers of the Year were also awarded.
The most distinguished award, the Vice-Chancellor’s Researcher of the Year in the male and female categories went to Professors Alvaro Viljoen (male) and Dharini Sivakumar (female) from the Faculty of Science.