Nthambeleni commends students for choosing Univen

The vice-chancellor and principal of the University of Venda (Univen), Dr Bernard Nthambeleni, commended first-entering students for choosing Univen as their preferred institution of higher learning.

He was speaking during the official opening of the 2019 academic year at the university auditorium last Wednesday.

He said that despite the challenges facing the South African higher-education sector, Univen had continued to maintain and safeguard its teaching and learning spaces. He also thanked the university structures for their meaningful contribution to the university’s academic and research performance.

"The university’s postgraduate success rates are increasing and research output per academic staff member has increased over the past years and the number of National Research Foundation-rated researchers has increased exponentially in the past few years," he said.

He further told the first-entering students that their academic journey had just begun, and the progress of completing their studies and the courses they had chosen would largely depend on how they conducted themselves. He congratulated the matric class of 2018 for having made it in their end-of-year examinations and eventually being admitted for enrolment in the programmes of their choice at the Univen. He told them that their commitment, hard work and self-discipline had been richly rewarded. "It is through your exceptional performance in matric that you were able to secure your admission at Univen," he said.

He said that the core values and guiding principles Univen subscribed to were: quality and excellence, accountability, transparency, integrity, respect, diversity, social responsibility and community engagement and ubuntu.

He congratulated the university staff and SRC members for playing a very big role in ensuring that the 2019 admission and registration period became successful.

Date:11 February 2019

By: Mbulaheni Ridovhona

The 22-year-old Mbulaheni (Gary) Ridovhona has been passionate about journalism to the extent that he would buy himself a copy of weekly Univen students' newsletter, Our Voice. After reading, he would write stories about his rural village, Mamvuka, and submit them to the very newsletter for publication. His deep-rooted love for words and writing saw him register for a Bachelor of Arts in Media Studies at the University of Venda, and joined the Limpopo Mirror team in February 2016 as a journalism intern.

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