Welcome to all new students who will join CUT for the 2021 academic year! I sincerely hope you will have a wonderful experience with us – your new academic home! I also welcome all our senior students back and hope that the new academic year will be a fulfilling one! I urge all of you to grasp the opportunity to obtain a higher education qualification with both hands and please be assured that our staff and management are ready to support you in whichever way possible!

The COVID-19 pandemic is still a reality and will continue to guide the way in which we offer tuition to you. Currently, we are in lockdown level 1 and we will manage our teaching and learning endeavours accordingly. Our approach may need to be adjusted as different lockdown levels may be announced during the year. It is not possible to have full contact classes in all modules yet while we are restricted to a maximum of 100 students in indoor venues and still need to adhere to social distancing protocols such as keeping a social distance, wearing a mask and washing/sanitising hands regularly. We also want to follow a conservative approach to protect the health of both our staff and students.

Our blended and augmented learning approach is to ensure that all first-year students, including international students, attend at least some of their modules in contact mode while they will continue with the rest via the online platform. We want to ensure that you experience CUT in person and have the opportunity to adjust to your new environment in the best possible way and experience efficient support from your respective academic departments and professional student services. Special arrangements will be made for international students who may arrive late due to challenges with visa’s, medical insurance and police clearance. Please consult with your relevant deans in this regard:

• Faculty Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology: Prof. Vermaak, hvermaak@cut.ac.za;
• Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences: Prof. Mashele, smashele@cut.ac.za;
• Faculty of Humanities: Prof. Setlalentoa, wsetlale@cut.ac.za;
• Faculty of Management Sciences: Prof. van Niekerk, edwardst@cut.ac.za.

The emphasis with senior students, including international senior students, returning to campuses of CUT will be on laboratory- and/or practical-based subjects with an addition of a minority of other subjects as identified by faculty deans. Details on these specifics will be communicated to you by the respective deans of faculties in the next few days. International students with a valid study permit/visa will be allowed to return if required but you will have to provide a valid certificate of a negative COVID-19 test at the border which was obtained not more than 72 hours prior to travel. In addition to consultations with deans on academic matters, international students are welcome to contact our International Student Advisor, Ms Sejake (msejake@cut.ac.za) for general information and assistance. For registration information please click on the link https://www.cut.ac.za/enrolment-process and for assistance with registration processes please engage with our Acting Deputy-Registrar: Academic Administration, Ms Njokweni (vnjokweni@cut.ac.za).

Classes (both face-to-face and online) will commence on 15 March 2021 for first-year students and 17 March 2021 for senior students respectively. Details on registration dates will be communicated to you by the Registrar’s division while your faculties will inform you of their specific orientation activities. There will also be an institutional virtual orientation session scheduled for 12 March 2021 of which details will be communicated to you via CUT’s website and social media platforms. It is important that first-year students attend both orientation sessions - by faculties on campus as well as the virtual one! Faculties will also arrange a walkabout to familiarise you with the location of classrooms, other divisions, offices, etc. Strict social distancing protocols will be applied during these contact-based orientation sessions.

Although it may change at a later stage depending on the announcement of other lockdown levels, assessments will, for now, follow the principle that students who attend contact classes and/or laboratory/practical sessions may be expected to be assessed on campus while students who attend fully online classes will be assessed via the online platform.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, all registered students for the academic year 2021 qualify for a university-funded data offering towards teaching and learning. The CUT data offering is 30GB (10GB anytime plus 20GB night owl data) for a period of 30 days and is allocated monthly. The following South African Service Providers are applicable: Cell-C; Vodacom; MTN and Telkom (we recommend that you purchase a pre-paid sim card if you are not with one of these service providers). Students are urged to capture their activated cell numbers on https://student.cut.ac.za/Pages/Update-Contact-Information.aspx as soon as they are registered otherwise, you will not receive data. A student can only provide one number for data allocation, so make sure that you select the correct service provider when you apply for data. Data loading will commence as soon as students are registered. It remains the student’s responsibility to manage the use of data wisely to last a full 30 days. CUT provides this data as a courtesy to students and may stop or amend the qualifying criteria at any time. Students on the Telkom network need to take the following into account: Telkom has a limited schedule for accepting and allocating data. As a result, Telkom data allocations can take as long as 15 days. Students on the Telkom network also need to consider that the allocated data is not applicable to students roaming on another network’s cell phone towers (Telkom rules). Students need to also be aware that if they are not in good standing with the Mobile network operator of their choice, such operators will not load data on their number.

Students with connectivity challenges will be supported by our Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT) under the leadership of Dr Malebo. It is important that you mention the relevant faculty in your communication. You may direct your inquiries in this regard to the following e-mail address: studentsupport@cut.ac.za

If you require assistance with acquiring a device, please complete the survey on the link: https://student.cut.ac.za/Pages/Digital-Learning-Device-Request.aspx.

The 2021 Fee Compact received from DHET indicated a tuition fee increase of 4.7% and accommodation fee increase of 6.7%, which were approved by CUT’s Council. To ensure that self-funded students meeting the requirement of the missing middle do register, CUT will assist these students to cover the portion of the fee increase which effectively means a 0% fee increase for these students. If your combined household income is less than R600 000, please find the application form on the link: https://www.cut.ac.za/announcements/115.

I wish you all well with the academic year 2021! If we are all committed we can jointly ensure that it will be a memorable year!

Kind regards

Prof. Albert Strydom

Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching and Learning

Download the acting DVC Communique, 04 March 2021 (PDF)