“A professorial inauguration happens after decades of hard work. This is the university’s opportunity to showcase new professors to the community and give the candidate a platform to share their research” with these words, Prof. Henk de Jager opened the Professorial Inauguration of prof. Isaac Ntshoe on 23 October 2013. 

Professor Isaac Ntshoe joined the Faculty of Humanities at CUT in July 2010 as a Research Professor in curriculum and pedagogy of vocational and professional fields.  His fields of specialisation are education policy, planning, curriculum and sociology of knowledge in education in general, and higher education in particular.   The foci of his research at CUT are knowledge differentiation and differentiation of purposes and specialiation in curricula and pedagogy of institutions in differentiated systems. He holds a Bachelors degree and a Higher Education Diploma from the University of South Africa, and a Bachelor of Education (Hons) from the University of the Witwatersrand.  He received the British Council scholarship to read for the Institute of Education, University of London, UK, a master’s degree (MA) in International and Comparative Education and subsequently earned a PhD from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.   His inaugural address entitled “Essaying purposes and specialisations of institutional types and division of labour in knowledge and skills production” made a clear case for context-independent knowledge as the basis for curricula design. “Graduates and students need in-depth knowledge of their respective sectoral professions that can only be provided in education institutions so that they are able to exhibit related competency and outcomes when they enter practice.” said he. He took issue with rigid specialisation, and advocated flexible specialisation that would enable graduates to  function in emerging new markets, manufacturing, innovation, knowledge, skills, and changing nature of employment.  This contrasts producing graduates with context-bound knowledge and skills deemed appropriate for specific careers, specific employment for specific environments. 

Professor Ntshoe finally argued that student graduates need to be able to go anywhere in the world and function with confidence in their skills, and knowledge and this they can do provided they acquire universal knowledge and skills comprising principles and concepts and not just memorised facts and content which could pigeon hole them later in life. CUT will be implementing nine new programmes in 2014 and 2015 through the Strategic Transformation of Educational Programmes and Structures (STEPS), a process started in 2010 as part of the institutions Vision 2020. STEPS aim to provide students with studies that will equip them with knowledge, education and practical understanding.

Professors congratulate and welcome Prof. Isaac as a full member within the intellectual community.  Pictured is from left Profs. Henk de Jager, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic; Hesta Friedrich-Nel, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Radiography professor and Programme Director for the Inauguration; Isaac Ntshoe, and David Ngidi, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities. Professor David Ngidi, faculty dean congratulates newly inaugurated professor Isaac Ntshoe.