Engineering offers excellent careers for men and women. Professional engineers are primarily concerned with the progress of technology by innovation, creativity, and change. Their work requires original thought, discretion, and sound judgement, and usually centres on people and technology.
The four-year Bachelor of Engineering programmes (BEng) equip students with a broad knowledge base. In the first year all students take the same compulsory subjects; thereafter they start specialising in the specific programme in which they are interested. Since the first year of study is largely common to all BEng programmes, students that have passed all the first-year subjects in their first year of study, may change to any other BEng programme at the start of their second year of study. In the first two years, a foundation of mathematics and the natural and engineering sciences is laid, and in the third and fourth years, students learn how to apply their knowledge to solve technical problems and how to develop business opportunities. With this broad knowledge base, BEng graduates can take up a variety of occupations both within and outside the engineering industry. They often establish and manage their own companies as entrepreneurs.
Professional accreditation and international recognition
All our BEng programmes are accredited by the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA), giving our graduates access to registration as Professional Engineers after acquiring the relevant experience in practice. In line with the Washington Accord, our BEng degrees are recognised world-wide in such countries as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, to name a few.
Language of instruction
All undergraduate modules, except for some electives, are presented in English and Afrikaans (parallel sessions or simultaneous interpreting). All test and exam papers and assignments are set in both English and Afrikaans, and students are free to write any paper or assignment in either English or Afrikaans.
When a module is presented to more than one class group (all compulsory first-year modules and many second-year modules), then it will be presented in parallel medium (at least one class group in Afrikaans and at least one class group in English).
When a module is presented to one class group only, then simultaneous interpretation is offered, in other words when the lecturer speaks Afrikaans, then the lecture is interpreted into English, and when the lecturer speaks English, then the lecture is interpreted into Afrikaans. Each student is free to choose whether or not to use the interpretation.