As an institution for higher education our first and most important mission is to educate our students and to prepare them for real life outside the university – may they later become valued employees in industry or organizations or may they start their own business as young entrepreneurs.

The best way to come into contact with practice is going out and search real problems.

The “Real Projects” format as part of the curriculum is characterized by:

  • Finding real problems from outside
  • Bringing them to the university
  • Solving the problems at the university with small student teams coached by professors
  • Learning about and applying professional management and creativity tools and methods
  • Coming up with innovative and practical solutions

Numerous other innovation projects offer students the chance to bring themselves in. Those projects mostly are funded by different organizations or sponsors. 

Student´s real projects as part of curriculum

Our teaching format “Real Projects” aims at students who already acquired their subject-specific knowledge in their home faculties. In “Real Projects” small teams of students are working on open problems coming from industry, organizations or other sources. Using Project Based Learning as a method the students apply on their projects what they have learned until then while using newly introduced professional management and creativity methods and tools.

 

Each semester professors from all faculties offer Real Projects within their courses. The projects will be offered as a parallel track to conventional courses. Students who decide for a Real Project will get their full credits for this course. 

 

Here is the list of Real Projects offered starting with January 2020. Feel free to contact the professor of your choice.

 

Name of Professor Email Faculty
Department		 Name of the course Name of the Real Project
Fester Ferdinand  FerdinandF@dut.ac.za Engineering and the Built Environment: Construction Management & Quantity Surveying    
Kamwendo Andrew   Management Sciences: Marketing and Retail    
Khumalo Thandiwe  ntulie@dut.ac.za Management Sciences: Applied Law    
Mazibuko Ntombifuthi   Health Sciences: Nursing    
Mbanga Tando  tandom@dut.ac.za Arts and Design: Fashion and Textiles    
Moodley
Sunthra		  sunthram@dut.ac.za Arts and Design: Fashion and Textiles    
Olanrewaju Oludolapo  OludolapoO@dut.ac.za Engineering and the Built Environment: Industrial Engineering    
Olarewaju Margret   Accounting and Informatics: Management Accounting    
Ramsuroop Suresh  ramsuros@dut.ac.za Engineering and the Built Environment:
Chemical Engineering		    
Schofield Ingrid  ingrids@dut.ac.za Management Sciences: Entrepreneurial Studies and Management    
Seyam Mohammed  MohammedS@dut.ac.za Engineering and the Built Environment:
Civil and Geomatics		    

Other projects with students being involved

At DUT we have numerous projects with student volunteers being involved as helpers, researcher assistants, entrepreneurs etc. Here you find examples for such projects: