At the Rhodes graduation ceremony at 9.30 on Thursday 5 April 2018 CHERTL staff were proud to witness thirty-two Postgraduate Diploma in Higher Education (PGDip (HE)) students and three PhD students crossing the stage.

PhD graduates included Thabi Mtombeni who works as a manager in the Programme Accreditation Directorate of the Council on Higher Education. Thabi’s thesis examined curriculum practices in a first year university General Chemistry curriculum. She was supervised by Professor Jo-Anne Vorster.

Gabi Nudelman, who teaches in the Engineering Faculty at the University of Cape Town, researched aspects of employability development in engineering education. She was supervised by Professors Lynn Quinn and Jo-Anne Vorster.

Temwa Moyo is the Deputy Director: University Financial and Physical Planning at the Department of Higher Education and Training. His PhD thesis explored the use of the Teaching Development Grant as a mechanism for improving teaching and learning in universities. He was supervised by Professor Sioux McKenna.

Of the group of thirty-two PGDip (HE) students to graduate, thirteen had completed the Diploma for academic developers. Of the thirteen, six  were awarded the qualification with distinctions. This course aims to equip academic developers, most of whom work in teaching and learning centres or quality assurance units in a range of universities across South Africa and Namibia, to contribute to improving teaching and learning for all our students.

Nineteen staff from Rhodes and a range of other South African universities were awarded the PGDip (HE) for lecturers.  The purpose of Diploma is to  professionalise the teaching practice of lecturers across the disciplines.  As there is no formal requirement for academics to undertake a qualification in teaching in higher education, this Diploma provides an important opportunIty for South African academics to develop as teachers of their disciplines.

Rhodes lecturers, Dinah Arnott (Journalism), Natasha Engelbrecht (School of Languages). Juniours Marire (Economics), Edward Matabane (formerly Mathematics) and Sally Matthews (Politics) were awarded distinctions for the PGDip (HE). These lecturers are part of a growing number of Rhodes University lecturers whose engagement in the scholarship of teaching and learning is contributing in significant ways to the quality of teaching and learning at this University.

Also crossing the stage this year, was CHERTL Office Administrator, Nomfundo Siqwede. She was awarded a Postgraduate Diploma in Enterprise Management which is offered by the Rhodes Business School. Aside from being proud of her achievement, CHERTL staff are in awe of how she found the time to study while still taking care of all CHERTL administrative affairs.