Stellenbosch University

Stellenbosch University as a South African University in Africa has committed itself through the institutional vision to be an academic institution of excellence and a respected knowledge partner that strives to contibute towards building the scientific, technological and intellectual capacity of Africa.

A key aspect of the Stellenbosch University’s vision is to make the University more accessible and academic achievement more attainable. To achieve this, the University has set in place alternative access routes, enhanced by user-friendly technology, especially aimed at those communities who currently need to overcome significant barriers to participate successfully in higher education.

The purpose of the University’s Division of Telematic Services (DTS) (www.sun.ac.za/ite) is to create a virtual learning environment that increases the virtual mobility of geographically dispersed students to widen their participation in the postgraduate academic offering of Stellenbosch University. The presenters of numerous short courses at Stellenbosch also utilize this integrated platform with great success to create virtual learning spaces as part of a blended learning approach.

The Telematic Services system is based on a combination of satellite, cell phone (SMS protocol) and web-based technology and consists of an on-campus studio, nineteen remote learning centres situated all over South Africa. One of these learning centres is situated in the Brightwater Commons. (For a map of where the Stellenbosch University learning centres are located in South Africa and Namibia, see http://academic.sun.ac.za/ite/map2.html.)

To fulfill the University’s responsibility to be a roleplayer in the community, the Telematic platform is increasingly made available to welfare organisations and community trainers to deliver training opportunities to communities and to support school partnerships. For this purpose a further 170 learning centres are included in the telematic learning centre network.

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