ENVIRONMENT AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA

TOP 550 QS-RATED SUBJECTS

Chemical engineering

Computer science and information systems

Electrical, electronic and computer engineering

Mechanical and aeronautical engineering

Mineral and mining engineering

Architecture and built environment

Reverend Professor Jerry Pillay, Dean of the Faculty of Theology and Religion, has been elected general secretary of the global faith-based organisation the World Council of Churches (WCC).

The soft-spoken churchman will leave academia at the end of the year to head the 74-year-old Swiss-Christian organisation committed to ecumenism (the belief that Christians of different denominations should work together to promote Christian unity).

Prof Pillay has many years of service in the leadership of the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa and in the ecumenical movement in South Africa and abroad. He was elected as the first President of the World Communion of Reformed Churches from 2010-2017. He is involved in the ecumenical movement in South Africa, serving on the South African Council of Churches, the National Church Leaders’ Consultation, and other global ecumenical bodies such as the World Council of Churches and the Council for World Mission.

Prof Pillay starts his new role at the WCC on 1 January 2023.

Dr Ernest van Eck, Deputy Dean, has been appointed as the new Principal of Knox College. Dr van Eck held dual roles within the Faculty as Deputy Dean for Research and Postgraduate Studies, and Head of Department for New Testament and Related Literature. He has extensive experience in curriculum development, having implemented two major new curricula in the Faculty and a hybrid model of teaching and learning.

Dr van Eck helped steer his Faculty to top10 rankings in citations per paper, placing it ahead of many well-known institutions around the world. He has supervised or co-supervised almost 100 postgraduate students over the years, and he is highly regarded for his own teaching, research, and publications. His resumé includes 50 publications in peer-reviewed or refereed journals and over 100 co-authored papers, study guides, books, chapters in books, and conference presentations.

He has won Lecturer of the Year or Excellence in Teaching Awards in four of the last ten years.

Professor Jaco Beyers, previously head of the Teaching and Learning committee, has been appointed as the Deputy Dean: Teaching and Learning in the Faculty of Theology and Religion. Prof Beyers is the section editor of the encyclopaedia Christian-Muslim Relations (CMR 1900), an international research project coordinating research from southern Africa.

His research interests include secularisation, interreligious dialogue, the theology of religions and religious studies, focusing on religion and art. He has attended a number of international conferences and his work has appeared in various peer-reviewed journals and book chapters.

We congratulate Prof Beyers on his appointment and wish him well in his new role as a member of the University’s management team.

The Faculty’s state-of-the-art Engineering 4.0 Complex and digital labs allow for participation in the University’s flagship Digital Twin Cities initiative, among others. EBIT believes that, while technology is the catalyst for change, humans are the sustaining force. We develop new mindsets and find new ways of working to encourage independent thinking and a desire to discover and create new knowledge that will make a difference in the world.

A holistic education for aspiring innovators