“When your come to Rhodes, you don’t get a course, you get involved,’ were the words of a graduating student in 2018.
At his inaugural address in 2015, Vice Chancellor, Dr Sizwe Mabizela fundamentally repositioned the University to become relevant and connected with Makanda/Grahamstown. He committed the university to being responsive to our local community and to work in partnerships across the city to build a new and inclusive society, one in which we could all prosper.
At the heart of this promise is an active student body who have shown deep commitment to transforming sectors of the community, one being public education. Through carefully conceptualized partnerships with local schools, the impact on results is noteworthy. The dismal results are a thing of the past, our 2018 Grade 12 results reflected a turn around and the city enjoyed the best set of matric results in its history. The number of candidates writing Grade 12 and the number of bachelor passes all hit a record high. In 2012, only 11 disadvantaged local pupils were admitted to Rhodes University, this year over 130 pupils are registered – this significant increase is noteworthy as we see the tranhformation of public education in Grahamstown/MakHanda.
Other students are addressing local challenges by researching solutions to the water and pollution challenges we are facing among a host of other themes. The opportunities to make knowledge with the community grow daily in our six faculties – Humanities, Science, Pharmacy, Education and Commerce.
The Community Engagement Division run a number of programmes to create opportunities for individuals or groups of students. These range from the Engaged Citizen Programme where students have a broad choice of 25 sites, the Budding Q Programme focusing on pre-literacy in Pre-schools, the Nine Tenths Mentoring Programme focusing on mentoring Grade 12s to the Siyakhana@Makana programme where you will matched with a community partner jointly devising a solution to a problem them have identified.
So if you’re looking for more than a course while at Rhodes University, come and find us at 5 Prince Alfred Road and sign up for a life changing opportunity you won’t regret.
