PEESA III meeting delegates

PEESA III meeting delegates

The Personalised Engineering Education in South Africa (PEESA III) project meeting involving, among others, developing a master’s programme in Engineering Education was proudly hosted by Vaal University of Technology (VUT) from 21 to 24 January.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the contribution of South African partners such as the VUT, Durban University of Technology (DUT), Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) and Tshwane University of Technology (TUT); report on developed master’s programmes; mutual recognition agreements; self-assessment reports for EUR-ACE accreditation; and addressing gender equality in engineering.

This was done through the assistance of international stakeholders who also attended the meeting; namely: Hochschule Wismar University of Applied Science (HSW) and Hochschule Flensburg University of Applied Sciences (HSFL) from Germany, Universytet Szczecinski (USZ) from Poland and Universitatea Lucian Blaga Din Sibiu (ULBS) from Romania.

During the opening of the meeting, Professor Riana van der Bank, Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor of teaching, learning and student support announced that the VUT PEESA III -team under the leadership of Prof Johan Bekker are currently busy with a project application to the European union for PEESA IV, which will be called Practice-Based Engineering Education in South Africa. She said VUT is very excited about PEESA IV and the opportunity it holds for all the industries in the region.

Prof Van der Bank closed the meeting with the following words: “We welcome the future; remembering that soon it will be the past. We must respect the past, because it was once all that was humanly possible.”

The four-day programme included activities such as visiting the Science Park in Sebokeng, learn about mastering 3D printing and all its advantages, a company site visit at ArcelorMittal to learn about the process of producing steel and Weltevrede Lion Farm to find out about South African wild animals; ending off with a final dinner of African cuisine at Vredefort Dome, a world heritage site.

Quote of the week: “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” — Gandhi