Home is where the heart is

The University of Pretoria (UP) has overhauled its community engagement efforts, adopting the approach that charity begins at home.

The university, which is involved in 1 439 projects across the country, launched a department of community engagement that is refocusing its work, concentrating on the nearby township of Mamelodi, where the university has a second campus—the former Vista University’s Mamelodi campus, which merged with UP in 2004.

The department, which reports to vice-principal Professor Ramaranka Mogotlane, expects faculties to introduce credit-bearing activities, which contribute to the acquisition of qualifications, into the curriculum. Each faculty is also expected to budget for community engagement.

Previously known as community service, work-related training or in-service education, community engagement, with teaching and research, is regarded as a core function of South African universities.

Giving reasons for the changes, Mogotlane said: “The projects were all over the place and uncoordinated.

They were doing good work, but nobody knew of them except the people involved in them. We decided we could no longer be everything to everyone across the country and that we had to target communities to maximise our input. Why not make Mamelodi our target community? It made a lot of sense.”

The move would also enable the university to make use of its own facilities, some of which are under-exploited, said Mogotlane.

The Mamelodi projects will include afternoon maths and science classes at schools in the area that traditionally have done well in these subjects, a law clinic staffed by senior law students and lecturers, an Aids clinic and an entrepreneurial clinic.

UP’s Institute of Women and Gender and the faculty of veterinary sciences will extend their work into Mamelodi.