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Witnessing the event were Mr. Sarel Schoombie, Director of the School of Engineering, Prof. Rossouw von Solms, Director of the Institute for ICT Advance-ment at NMMU and their PoN counter-parts. The two completed the high-level delegation which paid a two-day visit to PoN.

Theodora Nandjaa-Mweuta, PoN’s Act-ing International Relations Coordinator was elated about the prospects the part-nership with NMMU could result in:

“The MoU provides for collaboration in

Volume: 1September/October 2010

Department of Planning & International Relations e-Newsletter

NMMU and PoN now PARTNERS

Nelson Mandela Metropoli-tan University (NMMU) has joined a long, but impressive

list of international universities who call the Polytechnic of Namibia, (PoN) a true partner.

On graduation day, the 15th of October 2010, NMMU represented by Dr. Nico Jooste, the Director of International Education, and Dr. Tjama Tjivikua, Rec-tor of PoN signed a landmark agreement which will usher a period of sustained co-operation between the two institutions.

back: Ms. Theodora Nandjaa-Mweuta (Acting International Relations Coordinator, Dr Heike Win-schiers (Dean: IT), Prof. Rossouw von Solms (Director ICT Advancement, NMMU), Dr. Zac Oyedokun (Dean: Engineering, and Mr. Sarel Schoombie (Director: Engineering, NMMU) front: Dr. Tjama Tjivikua (Rector: PoN) and Dr. Nico Jooste (Director of International Education, (NMMU )

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By Kazembire Zemburuka

research and staff development, while student exchanges will also be possible. We are excited because the relationship which will cement SADC cooperation in higher education, something our politi-cal and educational leaders cherish.”

Dr. Jooste of NMMU remarked that their university closely considered potential partners and this includes a process of approval by a Committee.

“We take our time to select the partners we think will closely articulate our vision for the agreement signed. We just don’t

ContentNMMU and PoN now Partners 1

B360 Internship Candidates 2

STEP Interns Back 3

Telecom Namibia ICT Summit 4South to South Education

Partnership Flourishes 5

Thriving Partnership 6


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PIR e-Newsletter Volume 1 - September/October 2010

sign for the sake of signing; we want re-sults and activities to follow the signing of the agreement.”

Meanwhile, the relationship between the two institutions started before for-malization of this agreement.

Last year, two PoN staff, Ms. Mweuta-Nandjaa and Mr. Samuel John, the Head of the Department of Mechanical Engi-neering visited Port Elizabeth, to explore areas of interest and future collabora-tion.

This visit culminated in an expression of interest from the Department of Me-

chanical Engineering to send students to NMMU. The students will be part of an engineering team which will pro-duce a formula race car.

NMMU is the first university in South Africa to design and manufacture a for-mula student car, which is likely to par-ticipate in formula races.

Said Mr. John: “Discussions have been ongoing for two years and next year we will send 3 of our students to be part of the team at NMMU. This will pro-vide our students with an opportunity to work with such a multi-disciplinary team that manages all aspects of the

B360 internship candidatesBy Dioné Izaks

Selma Haludilu and Nancee de Koe

Selma Haludilu and Nancee de Koe, both 2nd year students in Accounting and Finance, at the

Polytechnic have been selected to do In-ternship at Credit Swiss Bank in Zurich, Switzerland from 01 February – 30 April 2011. The Cooperation of this Agree-ment falls under the B360 Education

Partnership.

The B360 Education partnership con-tributes to capacity building efforts in higher education in Namibia by estab-lishing knowledge-sharing partnerships between the Polytechnic of Namibia and companies and institutions in Swit-

zerland. The objective is to look for op-portunities and facilitate internships for Namibian students and lecturers with companies and institutions in Switzer-land. Moreover, B360 education part-nerships arrange for active and retired professionals to join the Polytechnic of Namibia as guest lecturers for 12 weeks.

formula student car.”

Another project that is likely to see in-creased collaboration between the PoN and NMMU, involves a third part-ner, namely the Wolfsburg University in Germany. These tripartite partners are working at designing and manufacturing a solar car.

Although this project is in its infancy, the School of Engineering at PoN, is de-lighted at the opportunities presented to those who are part of this institition and are able to share their knowledge with the rest of the world.


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Polytechnic of Namibia have for the past five years sent stu-dents to Germany on a vigor-

ous internship programme sponsored by Southern Africa Initiative of German Business (SAFRI). This year the Institu-tion managed to send four out of a total of six students from the entire region.

Above is a picture of the group of Stu-dents Experience Programme (STEP) participants in Germany after receiving

certificates from the Namibian Ambas-sador to Germany, Ambassador Neville Gertze at the conclusion of their pro-gramme.

STEP was created by Daimler in 2005 with a goal to better prepare young people from the SADC region for future professional challenges and aid their en-try into working life. STEP offers much-needed practical training which also cre-ates favourable business relations.

Participants are chosen from economics, finance, IT, marketing and engineering fields. Polytechnic of Namibia is a proud local sponsor of the programme and has managed to send more students, four of a total of six to Germany this year from March to August 2010. The participants worked at reputable companies in Ger-many such as Daimler AG and Mercedes Benz Cars Development.

STEP Interns back

fltr: Lieb Otto (South Africa), Gabriel Nhinda (Polytechnic, Bachelor: IT student), Neville Gertze (Namibian Ambassador to Germany), Riedwaan Ahmed

(Consul: South African Embassy), Desmund Nawaseb (Polytechnic, Bachelor: IT student), Mbirimuje Ngupandjara (Polytechnic, B. Tech: Acc. and Finance

student), Mpho Seretse (Botswana) and Etuhole Efraim (Polytechnic, Bachelor: IT student).



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were also sponsors’ exhibitions on new and emerging products and services available in local and international IT business and market. For the two days of the conference, the PoN School of Information Technology (SIT), as well as the Namibia Business Innovation Centre (NBIC), a Polytechnic entrepreneurship and incubator initiative exhibited stu-dents research posters, artifacts, and in-cubation information materials.

In October 2010, students and lectur-ers from the Schools of Information Technology and Engineering, from

Polytechnic of Namibia attended the an-nual Telecom Namibia ICT-Summit, in Windhoek.

The theme of the summit, the fourth in Namibia since 2007 was on how ICT could contribute to building a sustain-able economic growth and knowledge-based societies, a topical debate in Na-mibia.

Topics discussed were cloud computing, cybersphere, social networking, next generation networks broadband tech-nologies, global access and connection, ICT law, regulation policy and corporate governance. A theme on “partnership between academia and ICT industry for Research, Development and Innova-tion (RDI) was presented by Professor Hippolyte N. Muyingi from PoN who demonstrated how a well thought and implemented DRI programme could be a strong catalyst in driving Namibia to-wards a knowledge-based economy. His contribution drew attention and great interest of the audience.

Running parallel to the presentations

Hundreds of delegates from Namibia and around the world attended the event.

The summit was organized by Telecom Namibia, and sponsored by its local and International ICT business partners, such as Silnam, Salt Essential IT, Cisco System, Schoemans, Dimension Data, Cornastone, Business Connexion, Dete-com, Ericsson, and Microsoft. ICT Alli-ance and the Polytechnic were the lucky Telecom Namibia sponsored exhibitors.

Poly Students and Staff Attend the Telecom Namibia ICT-Summit-2010, in Windhoek

By Dioné Izaks


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Polytechnic of Namibia (PON) Rangeland Management and Animal Husbandry Lecturer Hil-

ma Amwele, 33, has temporarily traded her class room for post graduate studies in Thailand.

Amwele is pursuing a doctoral degree in agriculture at Khon Khaen University in Thailand, one of the top universities in the Asian country. Her research is ex-pected to add impetus to the integration of agriculture and mariculture to sustain meat and fodder production in Namibia.

Amwele has for the past five (5) years lectured at PON in the Department of Agriculture. After her 3 years studies, she plans to come back to her beloved class room and plough back her experi-ence there.

“I do not subscribe to the notion of look-ing for greener pastures especially when PON was instrumental in developing me and giving me the opportunity to bet-ter myself. I will definitely come back and work for PON”, an excited Amwele said when interviewed before she left for Thailand.

Amwele is equally appreciative of efforts by management to make her stay in Thailand a pleasant one. PON has enthu-siastically agreed to continue paying her house bond and maintain other benefits such as medical care while in Thailand. This will go a long way to ensure her two children are taken care of, in the absence of the family’s bread winner.

“I can confidently say PON will to take care of my family and for that I am ever indebted to the institution”.

The first phase of her doctoral research will be conducted in Thailand while the second phase will hopefully be complet-ed in Namibia.

Amwele already has her sights on what she plans to do when she returns. Top of the list is to develop an academic pro-gramme in integrated natural resources at PON’s Agriculture Department.

“To be given an opportunity for a PhD course is a welcomed blessing, I’m not going to have good time in Thailand it will be hard work all the way and I’m con-fident I’ll make everyone proud”.

Amwele is one of three PON staff study-ing in Thailand, thanks to scholarships granted to the Namibian government by Thai Universities and facilitated by Thailand International Development Co-operation Agency (TICA). The aim is to foster closer ties and enhance coopera-tion between the two countries.

Others include Sima Mpoyi, formerly with Planning and International Rela-tions, who is pursuing a Masters in Rural Development at the same university. Helmi Hitula was until recently the Man-ager of Polytechnic’ Hotel School. She is studying towards an MBA in Hospitality and Tourism Management at Prince of Songkla University.

The flourishing cooperation between Thai Universities and PoN is evident with the number of visiting Professors from Thai institutions who have graced the campus in recent times.

The mutual ties were established when Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs invited the Ministry of Education in Namibia to visit Thai Universities in June 2009.

South to South Education Partnership flourishing

By Theodora Nandjaa-Mweuta


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Pursuant to the thriving part-nerships generated by the Polytechnic of Namibia’s

(PoN) Department of Architecture, with the Tshwane University of Tech-nology, TUT, 22 students and their lecturers from South Africa came to Namibia on a learning and interac-tion visit.

A highlight of the week-long interac-tion was a lecture from Prof. Sigurd Scheuermann - a visiting profes-sor from University of Applied Sci-ence (UAS) Aachen ,Germany - who taught on Architectural design.

As part of this, students were divided into teams to complete a complex architectural design. The teams were required to design a Peace Chapel – a non-denominational shrine where people from all backgrounds and walks of life can come to celebrate the miracle of peace in the land. The aim of the chapel or interpretation centre was to act as a unifying space, where individuals and groups could

THRIVING PARTNERSHIP

feel free to express their cultures, but in the framework of larger unity, with no direct reference or symbol of any organised tribal, cultural or political affiliation.

According to Andre Roodt, Lecturer from TUT, usually this intricate task could take anything from 2-3 weeks to complete. However, the students only had two days to finish this time-consuming task. Roodt was elated by the speed at which the teams con-cluded the task, working through the night to complete their work.

The quality of the designs and themes were indeed impressive, the panel of judges composed of lectur-ers from TUT and PoN emphatically concluded, after the display of the designs.

Rector of PoN, Dr. Tjama Tjivikua offi-ciated at the conclusion of the event and hailed the close ties between PoN and TUT which culminated in this collaboration.

Dr. Tjivikua also encouraged stu-dents to take their studies seriously in order to ensure the country’s de-velopmental goals are met, espe-cially in a sought-after field such as Architecture.

He also invited the TUT team to come back next year, as the second intake of PoN Architecture students will ensure a bigger but competitive PoN team.

The visit included interaction with Poly students in the area of Architec-tural design, modeling, detailing pre-sentation and tutoring.

The visit also served as a mentorship programme whereby senior and the more seasoned TUT students im-parted their skills to Poly’s first years, who by all accounts distinguished themselves during their first aca-demic year.


...and also


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Prof. Dr. Gabrielle Beibst President of University of Applied Sciences Jena and Prof. Heike Kraußlach, Professor in Business Administration and Health Management at the German-based University were on a reciprocal visit to Namibia, to deepen long-standing cooperation with the Poly.

Top of the agenda include discussions on coop-eration in the Engineering, Health and Business Administration disciplines. Receiving the two es-teemed guests, Dr. Tjivikua re-iterated the need to maintain mutual relations while exploring new ar-eas of collaboration between the two institutions.

At the end of the 5 day visit, an Action Plan was adopted to accelerate the implementation of all activities agreed upon.

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Architectural students presenting their concepts to the audience

Dr. Gert Günzel, PoN Vice-Rector of Finance and Administration chatting with the guests, Prof. Heike Kraußlach (centre), Prof. Dr. Gabrielle Beibst (right)

Dr. Tjivikua and Dr. Jooste all smiles during the signing ceremony


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Polytechnic’s, Masters in Civil Engineer-ing students, Courage Silombela Elina Hamatwi, Phillip Ngheno, accompanied by Dr. Helmuth Mischo attended sum-merschool in RheinMain University of Applied Sciences, Wiesbaden,Germany in September. PoN was invited by our partner university, which covered all ex-penses of the trip.

Department of Planning & International Relations e-Newsletter

Editor: Neavera Olivier

Sub-Editor: Theodora Nandjaa-Mweuta

Contributions by: Theodora Nandjaa-Mweuta, Dioné Izaks, Kazembire Zemburuka

Design & Layout: Marlyna Nanus

Pictures: Polytechnic Staff and Other

...and Lastly

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polytechnic o f PIR e News - NUST