The man credited with leading the turnaround of student numbers at the University of the Witwatersrand has resigned.
Peter Bezuidenhoudt, director of marketing and communications and chief executive of Wits Enterprise, joined the institution in 2000, when student numbers had plummeted since the mid-1990s.
But the downward spiral was reversed, resulting in student numbers increasing from about 18 500 to 25 000.
‘The challenge was getting people to believe in the university again. We did a lot of marketing, advertising, established a call centre, improved infrastructure and introduced [first year] scholarships,” Bezuidenhoudt said, revisiting some of the factors that had contributed to the growth in student numbers at Wits.
Student numbers have now stabilised and Bezuidenhoudt believes further growth will entail additional investment in staff and facilities.
He added that the university had to continue marketing and building relationships with potential students because the competition between institutions for top students, in particular, was set to increase.
He said highlights during his stint at Wits were his involvement in building the Matrix, the university’s student centre, and the launch of Wits Enterprise, a company raking in about R80-million, of which a ‘reasonable” portion goes back to academics who consult, do contract work or enable technology transfers.
Bezuidenhoudt said this week that after seven years at Wits he felt he had to move on.
Some staff said Bezuidenhoudt, a chemical engineer and MBA graduate with a dynamic, creative and larger-than-life personality, would be difficult to replace as he was a people’s person and understood the student market.
Bezuidenhoudt will leave Wits at the end of the month to take up a top position at a headhunting company. ‘My passion is for Wits. I don’t think I will be able to work for another university,” he said.