"Successful people don't do it alone. Where they come from matters. They're products of particular places and environments [communities]".
Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success
We strive to give you an exceptional campus experience, whether you live privately or in a SU residence. You are part of a cluster community nurtured to promote student success. All students belong to a cluster from their very first day as a Matie. Clusters connect communities to listen, learn and live and will equip you for a fast-changing world. This makes your higher education experience more enjoyable and even more affordable. Your cluster community is your place of belonging and is a second home away from home. This is your lifelong community.
How do clusters work?
SU has Eight(8) student communities called clusters – amaMaties, Rubix, Senior Living Spaces(SLS), TygerMaties, VicMyer, Validus, Victoria and Wimbledon. These are formed by the geographic proximity of the smaller communities within them. In other words, the cluster you belong to, is determined by the residence or Private Student Organisation (PSO) you are a part of. The Cluster system creates physical, on-campus spaces for PSO students to meet and integrate with on-campus students. We call these spaces hubs – where students can study and eat together – and we already have two dedicated hubs in the amaMaties and Wimbledon clusters. SU is planning to build a hub in each cluster. Students can book meals in open dining halls in their dedicated cluster.
Why am I part of a cluster?
Your success as a student is the result of your own efforts combined with your campus experience. Clusters harness the factors that contribute to your success to work in favour of students that live privately and in SU residences.
Student communities provide a web of advantages, relationships, support and opportunities that enables you to succeed. Clusters extend this web in an increasingly shared campus experience to all our students living privately and in SU residences. Clusters create a holistic living and learning experience contributing to student success. A cluster community provides a place for social interaction, belonging and access to peer-support. It hosts interesting and challenging conversations and increases your experience of diversity. Through the cluster, you have access to dining facilities, study areas and study groups. It increases your safety on campus and ultimately contributes to an engaging campus experience. This, coupled with your academic curriculum, helps you to achieve our university's four graduate attributes by the time you have completed your degree. Clusters shape campus life for students.
Ultimately, the cluster becomes the organising principle for academic and social affairs at Stellenbosch University. This provides more effective services to our students – including sport, support services, leadership development and a way to organise academic affairs. By being an active member of your cluster, you will form meaningful relationships that create your network to boost professional opportunities beyond being a Matie on campus.