Durban - Durban University of Technology (DUT) vice-chancellor Professor Thandwa Mthembu welcomed first-year students at the first-year orientation week programme held at Curries Fountain stadium on Monday.
DUT accepted 8 564 first-year students for the 2023 academic year.
Mthembu congratulated the first-year students for being accepted into programmes at DUT and said they were now entering a new phase of their lives.
“University is a place of facts and evidence, where reason and rationality, where deliberation and debate reign supreme.
“Here misunderstandings, disputes, and conflicts are settled intellectually, not by force of gate crashing and shouting,” he said.
Mthembu cautioned students about exercising their right to join political student movements at the institution and said it could distract them from studying.
“When they come to mobilise you, ask them to show their bank accounts so that you can see who paid them to do that. Ask them to show you their academic record and ask them the progress they have made in their academic journey here and where are they planning to be in the next five years. We are not saying there must be no student activism, but we should look at this from all sides,” Mthembu added.
Parent Deon Williams, who attended the orientation with his daughter who will be studying for a Bachelor of Applied Science, said he was excited for this chapter of her life.
“She had a year at home after finishing her matric and she did not know what she was going to study but we are very happy that she was accepted and everything worked well for her.
“My daughter is a hard worker. Throughout her schooling we never have to push her, she pushes herself,” Williams said.
Another parent, Boni Mkhize of Ballito, said she was certain that her son Thamsanqa would excel in this academic year as he is enrolled for a Bachelor of Information Communication.
“He is looking forward to starting a new journey and as a family we are so excited because DUT was his first-choice institution.
“We will be supporting him in every way. We have just discussed that we are planning to buy him a car as he will be staying at home and travelling a lot,” Mkhize said.