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DUT holds five-day first year orientation 2022
by Softcopy
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DUT holds
five-day first year orientation 2022
The Durban University of Technology (DUT) Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Professor Thandwa Mthembu officially welcomed first year students during the First Year Orientation 2022 on Monday, 07 February 2022. The 5-day long orientation which started on Monday, 07 February 2022) and ended on Friday, 11 February 2022 was held online, via Microsoft Teams.
Prof Mthembu addressed students and parents to officially welcome them to the DUT Community. He began by congratulating the first-year students on passing Grade 12 well enough to be admitted to the programmes they had applied for at DUT.
“Given the challenges you had to grapple with in your matric year as a result of COVID-19-rotational sessions you had to endure, and all-you are surely made of sterner stuff. You are highly determined, focused and goal-oriented, to say the least. We are very proud of you. Congratulations again! I would be remiss if I failed to give a special welcome to your parents, guardians and family who are with us today. Thanks for raising and supporting them with a sense of good values and principles, and through thick and thin. Most importantly, thanks for the great choice they and yourselves made to study at this history-making University,” noted Prof Mthembu.
He commended the students and parents for choosing DUT, which is one of the top universities in South Africa. In the next few days and weeks, Prof Mthembu said the first-year students will begin to realise that, unlike in high school where there is heavy dependence on teachers, university requires a great measure of initiative and independence in the work they do.
“You have been admitted to and will enrol in a programme at the end of which you should be the master of the knowledge and high level intellectual and professional skills that that programme is about. It’s about you. Not your parents, your lecturer nor your professor. DUT seeks to produce creative, innovative and adaptive graduates whose contributions to the broader society before and after they exit our University will be impactful,” Prof Mthembu added.
He also warned the students to be careful saying there are many pirates along the way – drugs, demagogues who call themselves activists and all – that might lead them astray. Furthermore, Prof Mthembu added that students were setting off on their University journey at a time where the world, and South Africa in particular, is moving from one crisis to another. “The future of this world and this country is not ours; but, yours, our youth. It requires new and fresh ideas and innovations from you, not old and hackneyed slogans and chants. Such will not come out of thin air; but, from your mastery of critical thinking and analysis, from your knowledge and high-level skills, and from your creativity and innovations, and from your entrepreneurship,” advised Prof Mthembu.
