Cida opens Cape campus
Mahlatsi Mgidi
26 October 2004
South Africa's first 'free' higher education institution for disadvantaged students is to open another campus in Cape Town.
Established in Johannesburg five years ago, the CIDA City Campus will open in Waverley Business Park in Mowbray, next January.
The Cape Town campus, called TSiBA, which stands for Tertiary School in Business Administration and also means 'leap' in isiXhosa, currently offers 80 scholarships.
It will offer CIDA's Foundation Certificate in Business Administration at FET level, this will be followed by a full-time Bachelor in Business Administration degree from 2006.
TSiBA intends to commence with tertiary level studies in 2006 after it has formally applied to do so with the Council for Higher Education and the Department of Education.
The Shuttleworth Foundation provided the capital to establish the Cape Town institution, which aims to develop future South African leaders from disadvantaged
communities.
Founder of the Shuttleworth Foundation Mark Shuttleworth said innovation was the key to rapid improvement both in business and in society.
"The team at TSiBA has an innovative vision for tertiary education in South Africa that has great potential. I am delighted to support them in bringing that innovation to Cape Town and wish them luck in building this new kind of institution that will, I hope, become a global phenomenon," he said.
Executive director of TSiBA Leigh Meinert said their priority was to create a "paying it forward" culture whereby students would be expected to participate in the daily running of the institution from administration work to computer maintenance and training, marketing and campus maintenance.
"They will also be expected to spread their knowledge to their communities by teaching learners, community members and unemployed people about finance, banking and the use of computers, among other skills," she said.
TSiBA has also been selected to assess the Mandela-Rhodes Scholarship programme, which is aimed at building exceptional leadership capacity in Africa, to be launched by the Mandela Rhodes Foundation next year.
The institution has received support from Bowman Gilfillan for legal assistance, Ernst & Young for financial services, the First National Bank for banking services and Sun International.
Meinert said over the next few months the TSiBA team will be focusing on recruiting and screening applicants for the new academic year.
Source: BuaNews
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