by Phaphama Tshisikhawe
“The Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) boasts a special breed of students - perhaps the feistiest and the most resilient students in the higher education sector. Before they arrive at the gates of TUT, many of our students have had many rivers to cross, several mountains to scale, winding roads to negotiate, and steep valleys to walk”, says Prof Tinyiko Maluleke, the Vice-Chancellor and Principal, in a personal message to the newly minted graduates as the autumn graduation season commenced on 8 April 2024.
The University is proud and delighted to announce that during the 2024 autumn graduation season, TUT will add about 10 700 future-ready graduates to the workforce.
Of these; close to 8 500 will receive undergraduate degrees, diplomas and certificates, while about 1 990 will graduate with Honours, Postgraduate Diplomas and Bachelor of Technology degrees. As part of our contribution to problem-solving innovation, the Tshwane University of Technology will also graduate 181 Master’s degree candidates and 29 Doctoral degree candidates, during the 2024 autumn graduation season.
During the 2024 graduation season Honorary Doctorates will be awarded to exceptional individuals who have made tremendous contributions to human development. These are Prof Tshilidzi Marwala (Doctor of Engineering), Ms Bongi Dhlomo and Mr Wouter Kellerman (Doctor of Art & Design), Prof Pitika Ntuli (Doctor of Language Practice), and the late President Samora Machel (Doctor of Public Affairs – posthumously). Except for Prof Marwala, the other recipients of the honorary degrees will be awarded during the Spring Graduations, later in 2024.
Prof Tinyiko Maluleke, Vice-Chancellor and Principal with Prof Tshilidzi Marwala as he receives the Honorary Doctorate in Engineering.
In his message to the graduands, Prof Maluleke, said that, “it is with a sense of absolute confidence and pride that we release today, the brand-new list of our excellent and future-ready graduates. We have designed our curricula and our pedagogy to produce graduates who will have what it takes to contribute to the emergence of an industrialised, energy secure, food secure, technology-driven, and disease-free Africa.”
He further suggested that “TUT students are trained and coached, from the very beginning, to get the basics right, namely, not to waste a single day of learning, not lose a single week of studying, not to forfeit a single month of research, and never not squander the golden opportunity presented by each semester.”
Prof Maluleke called upon the graduates to go and contribute to the creation of a country with zero tolerance for gender-based violence and to play their part in ridding the world of hunger, poverty, inequality and climate change.
Please click here to access Prof Tinyiko Maluleke’s full speech.
