Prof Marshall Sheldon elected to Global Engineering Dean’s Council Executive Committee
Nelson Mandela University’s Professor Marshall Sheldon, the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, the Built Environment and Technology (EBET), has recently been elected to the Global Engineering Dean’s Council Executive Committee (GEDC).
The GEDC is a global network of leaders in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) education that brings together engineering Deans from across the globe to collaborate, share best practices, and address challenges in engineering education.
Additionally, the GEDC’s mission is to advance engineering education and promote sustainable development through innovation and diversity.
A Chemical Engineer by profession, Prof Sheldon explained that she applied for this committee based on her demonstrated leadership and vision within her various positions as Dean at two Higher Education Institutions in South Africa.
CANRAD wins grant for intercontinental research on democracy
The University’s Centre for the Advancement of Non-Racialism and Democracy (CANRAD) has been successful in its application for a competitive three-year grant from the Trans-Atlantic Platform (TAP) on Democracy, Governance and Trust.
At the inception meeting in October in Swansea, UK (from left): Professor Thabisani Ndlovu (Walter Sisulu University), Prof Lori Beaman (Ottawa University), Prof Christi van der Westhuizen (Mandela University), Prof Paula Montero (São Paulo University), and Prof Bheki Mngomezulu (Mandela University).
Titled “Repairing sociality, safeguarding democracy: trans-Atlantic North-South narratives and practices of deep equality”, the project spans four different democracies: South Africa, Brazil, Canada and the United Kingdom.
CANRAD Associate Professor Christi van der Westhuizen is the lead principal investigator and CANRAD Director Bheki Mngomezulu is a co-principal investigator on this North-South research project.
From side hustle to primary hustle
“What you did yesterday doesn’t matter, it is what you are doing today.” This is the motto of the head of the Centre for Entrepreneurship Rapid Incubator (CfERI) at Nelson Mandela University, Dr Thobekani Lose, a leading researcher and specialist in student entrepreneurship development and business incubation development.
CfERI was established at Mandela University in 2024 to help students and young people in the region to develop entrepreneurial skills and change their mindset from job seeker to job-creator.
“If we want to lower the massive unemployment levels, we need our universities to be the cornerstone of entrepreneurship,” says Lose.
With funding from the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA) CfERI provides an 18 to 36-month incubation programme and other services to students, graduate entrepreneurs, unemployed young people, and young township entrepreneurs, led by Lose, who has more than 12 years of work experience in the entrepreneurial and incubation ecosystem.
Multimillion-rand million bursary set to benefit female postgraduate students
The Port Elizabeth Women’s Club (PEWC) has invested R2.5 million to Nelson Mandela University, for bursaries to support female postgraduate students across various disciplines.
Dr Sibongile Sowazi, Dr Phumeza Kota-Nyati, Denise Long, Hazel Nciweni, Prof Pamela Maseko, Lynn Louw and Cynthia Davies
Formed in 1936 to support and advance opportunities for women at the time, the Club has formed an integral part of not only women’s empowerment but also community upliftment for more than eight decades.
However, unable to pay its monthly municipality rate, and a drop in membership led to the PEWC selling its assets, including a building in Summerstrand that was sold to the University in 2022.
Despite that, the Club has continued its legacy by ploughing back a donation of R2.5 million, drawn from the sale of its assets, back to the institution to reward deserving South African female students with a fully-funded bursary.
The University’s Strategic Resource Mobilisation and Advancement (SRMA) office facilitates such donations in aid of students’ studies, with the official handover having taken place on 29 October 2024 at the University’s Ocean Sciences Campus.
National appointment for Mandela University Executive Dean of Law
Nelson Mandela University congratulates, Executive Dean of Law Dr Lynn Biggs, on being appointed to the South African Legal Practice Council (LPC).
The LPC is a national, statutory body, for regulatory affairs of the legal profession and exercises jurisdiction over all legal practitioners (attorneys and advocates) and candidate legal practitioners, it has 23 representatives, who this year took office for a term of three years commencing, 1 November.
This is the third time a new council has been appointed to guide the affairs of the profession. Three members are appointed by the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, while 16 members, comprising 10 practising attorneys and six practicing advocates, are appointed through elections that are open to the legal fraternity and the public.
The remaining four roles are filled by individuals nominated by: Legal Aid South Africa, the Legal Practice Fidelity Fund, the South African Law Teachers’ Association, and the South African Law Deans’ Association (SALDA).