Stellenbosch University
Welcome to Stellenbosch University
SU online and blended short courses now available at SUNOnline
Author: Corporate Communication/Korporatiewe Kommunikasie [Rozanne Engel]
Published: 07/02/2020

Do you want to sharpen your language skills, develop your leadership potential or start your own business?

Stellenbosch University's Short Courses Division, has over 500 short courses that can help you achieve your educational and professional goals.

A collaborative partnership established mid-2017 between Innovus: Short Courses Division, SU's Centre for Learning Technologies and Information Technology saw the new online learning portal of Stellenbosch University (SU), known as SUNOnline going live in May 2019.

The SUNOnline project was a fully SU funded initiative and took approximately 22 months to complete.

According to Carol Kat, Head: Copyright & Short Courses at SU, the new platform is aligned and meets certain institutional Vision 2040 and Strategic Framework 2019–2024 goals – of a transformative and networked and collaborative teaching and learning experience by creating work-integrated learning opportunities and expanding SU's knowledge offering by serving new student markets.

“Stellenbosch University has always been known for its academic excellence and will now hopefully be able to offer high quality online short courses more seamlessly through this platform," says Kat.

Since the Short Courses Division was established in January 2007, about 13 000 to 15 000 local and international students register and complete short learning programmes every year. The Division coordinates the operational and administrative services involved with the facilitation of short courses at SU and also supports these standard processes.

The short courses are presented in different fields, including management development, community interaction and development, public administration, education, engineering and law and SU environments manage and administer the short course processes themselves. SU has, in compliance with the Council on Higher Education (CHE) and the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) regulations, taken full responsibility for the academic quality assurance of its short courses and other delegated functions, with the CHE retaining its overarching responsibility of these aspects.

Through the new SUNOnline platform, the Division hopes to minimise the challenges and additional expenses of using external hosting platforms and increase students' capabilities of using web-based tools and technologies.

Both the public and private sector can benefit from short courses offered by SU, says Kat.

To see what the Short Courses Division has to offer, go to https://www.shortcourses.sun.ac.za/ and visit SUNOnline at https://www0.sun.ac.za/online/courses/