NMU Open Days an educational experience
Zolani Sinxo
The Nelson Mandela University (NMU) George Campus held its annual Open
Days career exhibitions on Friday 4 and Saturday 5 May, providing learners across the Southern Cape with an opportunity to explore what the university has to offer.
Acting principal David Alexandra explained that the Open Days provide a platform for the university to inform students and other stakeholders. "This way people can understand what the requirements for admission to our courses are, so that they can plan ahead knowing what targets they must meet to secure an entrance to our university," she said.
According to Alet van Tonder, NMU manager of communications and stakeholder liaison, close to a thousand people attended the open days. This includes high school learners, educators, TVET students from various campuses in the region and parents.
"The visitors engaged with current students, lecturers and staff from the university's support units over the two days. While most of the visitors came from George and the surrounding towns, quite a number came from as far as Mpumalanga, Gauteng, Cape Town, East London and Port Elizabeth to obtain information about the niche programmes offered at the George Campus and to experience in person this unique campus in the heart of the picturesque Garden Route," she said.
Learners and guests were invited to an orientation session where valuable study information was shared before they actually visited the Open Day stalls.
"Those who had already made up their minds to study at the university were assisted by the university's Admissions Office to submit their applications for 2019 studies online. Learners were also assisted with a pre-screening evaluation to assess if they met the criteria for the particular programmes they are interested in, or were advised of alternative options if necessary," said Van Tonder.
As is customary, stalls were also adjudicated in terms of the professional execution of the exhibit, and how well they managed to get across the essence of the particular programme or service represented. The adjudicating team included Lorinda Hakimi, manager of the George Museum, Zolani Sinxo, Editor: Idinga and journalist at Group Editors; and Pedro Oliphant, manager for economic development at the George Municipality.
The Nature Conservation and Game Ranch Management Stall (School of
Natural Resource Management, Faculty of Science) scooped the first prize, with the School of Accounting (Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences) claiming the second place, followed by the stall of the Veldfire Management programme which is, like Nature Conservation, a niche offering of the university within the School of Natural Resource Management.