Lecture Notes

University of Free State scientists have contributed to the conviction of a manufacturer for selling diluted olive oil under the guise of virgin o

Can you draw? Do you have your matric? Can you communicate readily in English? Yes? Then you have the basic qualifications required to study in one of the most stimulating and interesting businesses in the world today: animation. Or do you want to make a career out of your communication skills? Then the powerful medium of radio could well be for you.

The UCT Graduate School of Business (UCT GSB) will launch a new programme this year specifically designed to develop women leaders in South Africa. Dr Marjolijn Dijksterhuis, director of the new Women in Leadership Programme, says it is designed for women with proven leadership capacity who want to develop to their full professional potential.

Vega, The Brand Communications School, has launched a new degree in brand building and management to be offered from next year. The new degree is a hybrid offering combing components of a BA and a BCom that will provide a student with both a creative and strategic mindset.

The Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies based in Mtubatuba, KwaZulu-Natal, has received a major funding boost of £15-million over a five-year period from the Wellcome Trust in the United Kingdom to undertake cutting-edge research in HIV/Aids. The Africa Centre is a joint initiative of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) and the Medical Research Council of South Africa.

A Durban cosmologist, Dr Kavilan Moodley, has been awarded the prestigious Silver Jubilee Medal for 2007, by the South African Institute of Physics. The medal, awarded every two years to young researchers under the age of 35 years, was presented to Moodley at the opening event of the South African Institute of Physics’s 52nd annual conference, held last month at Wits University.

The percentage of women MBA students on campus at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) has been steadily increasing since the first intake of students in the year 2000. “Our MBA programme is currently approximately 40% female, which is a most gratifying statistic for us,” said Shireen Chengadu, director of MBA programmes at GIBS.

The first Confucius Institute for Business in South Africa, and on the African continent, will be established at the Tshwane University of Technology in the near future. Tshwane vice-chancellor Errol Tyobeka and the Chinese Deputy Minister of Education, Yuan Guiren, on behalf of the office of the Chinese Language Council International, signed a letter of cooperation intent in June.

A small group of scientists led by Dr Michelle van der Bank of the botany and biotechnology department at the University of Johannesburg has launched an ambitious project to collect all the plants of the Kruger National Park and use DNA sequencing and barcoding techniques to study this rich flora.