The University of the Wit- watersrand (Wits) School of Mining Engineering made solid progress in reaching the ten goals of its five-year strategic plan in 2012, school head Professor Fred Cawood states in the Wits School of Mining Engineering 2012 yearly review.

Significant progress was made in achieving the goals of having a grant-funded associate lecturer at the school, managing student and staff populations towards acceptable demographic ratios, reviewing the undergraduate, postgraduate and certificate programmes for relevance on a five-year basis, building strong internal and external partnerships, retaining Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) accreditation of the undergraduate programme, improving student throughput in all programmes, and increasing the number of National Research Foundation-rated staff.

Additional goals set by the school include reducing student-to-staff ratios, increasing the percentage of fully sponsored students in the school and improving research output through research degrees and publications.

“Through this strategic plan, we are keeping the institution at the cutting edge of educational excellence in a demanding and fast-changing industry,” Cawood says.

The school’s strong foundation of undergraduate course delivery was confirmed by the ECSA, which renewed the Wits School of Mining Engineering’s accreditation for the maximum period of five years, he adds.

“This underpins our attractiveness to prospective engineers, reflected in the increased numbers of undergraduates in recent years. We have also substantially increased the number of qualifications issued each year – from 148 in 2009 to 284 in 2012.”

Meanwhile, the school continues to succeed in attracting and retaining high-calibre staff, as it has been achieving and retaining a full complement since 2011. The school has also been able to attract and recruit new staff more speedily than it did before, which allows for teaching and other departmental activities to continue smoothly during staff transitions.

“It has also been rewarding to see the number of young staff developing as academics and registered for higher degrees to complement the number of full-time PhDs and professors at the school, which now stands at eight and five respectively. In terms of employment equity, academic staff transformation reached 50% in 2012 and 55% in early 2013,” Cawood points out.

Further, the Wits School of Mining Engineering is improving the rate of its students progressing from first year to second year, with a rate of 53% for the 2012 intake.

With higher student intake and improved throughput, class sizes have increased to an expected graduating class of 100 in 2014, with the number of graduates from the postgraduate programme also increasing, he adds.

Of the 74 final-year students in 2012, 68 graduated in December 2012 or in July this year.

“Graduate numbers would have been much lower if companies like gold major Gold Fields had not stepped in to provide vacation work opportunities for our unbonded students and for those without mining company bursaries for the January to April 2013 period.

“This avoided a situation where students who met all the academic requirements for the degree could not graduate because they had not met the required vacation work requirements,” the Wits School of Mining Engineering states in the 2012 review.

Meanwhile, investment in the school’s laboratories continued, ensuring that students receive practical and industry-relevant input in a range of key areas.

“This includes the construction of a digital, futuristic mine mock-up on and around the school’s premises. The project has already attracted the support of mining companies and suppliers and is expected to be the focus of much attention, locally and internationally, by the end of 2013,” Cawood says.

As positive partnerships with industry underlie the success of many of the school’s activities, a club has been created to foster links with the mining engineering community through discussions on topical matters. The topic for 2012 was mine optimisation tools, with the 2013 topic being mining into the future, he notes.

“Further, research output is increasing, mainly owing to the higher entry requirements for the postgraduate programme. The phasing out of the course- work-based MEng and replacing it with a combined coursework and research MSc is leading to greater specialisations and staff publications.

“Restructuring the postgraduate programme will improve research productivity, and the assessment of students registered for the MSc and PhD qualifications now includes the compulsory publication of their research,” Cawood concludes.