The Durban University of Technology hosted pupils from various high schools for its 2023 Open Week, which was held from 10 May 2023 to 13 May 2023 at Ritson Campus.
Open Week at DUT has not been in operation since the start of COVID-19 and this year, 2023 the event is yet again physical with 13 schools and 1885 learners making their way to the Open Week, on the first day of the event.
The idea behind Open Week is to provide pupils from Grade 9 and Grade 12 school groups with valuable information about the different faculties, departments and programmes that exist at the university.
Various academic departments from DUT are showcasing their programmes offered and are also available to assist with questions from both pupils and their educators.
Alex Mdletshe, Manager at Student Recruitment gave more insight into the Open Week, saying that its an annual event but DUT had to stop because of COVID-19 disruptions. However, now it is continuing from this year.
Mdletshe also said that the Open Week event, in terms of DUT’s ENVISION2030, Strategy, talks to sustainability because there is no university without students.
“These are probably our future students so we are trying to market our programmes so that they end up here at DUT. As a University we talk about being an engaged university, so we are responding to challenges that are faced by pupils in basic education of not getting information. We are saying now, come to DUT so that you can get information about every programme offered so that you can then make an informed decision about your career.
He explained that this is a great time for the Grade 12s to do an application after this Open Week and also for Grade 9s as they are going to select subject choices at the end of the year in Grade 10.
Benjamin Hardy from the Chiropractic Master’s degree department said that Open Week provides a unique opportunity for pupils to personally enquire about specific professions of personal interest and partially ignite new found interests in the pupils due to the variety of professions they are exposed to.
Louis du Plessis, Acting Head of the Department of Architecture, emphasised that it is a critical component of engaging with prospective students face to face on a much larger scale.
Tamika Golbeck, who works in the Public Relations and Communications Management department and a representative from DUT confers that open days are a perfect opportunity to get first-hand experience of the campus and its pupils, staff and academics.
Mr Mdletshe also excitedly made mention that Applied Sciences have introduced a Higher Certificate at DUT which is a root to most of their programmes and also engineering.
The last day, Saturday, 13 May had parents of pupils coming along to also see what DUT has to offer to their children.
Pictured: Grad9s and Grade 12s gathering information at the Open Week at DUT.
Nomvelu Zulu/Waheeda Peters
