Durban - Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT) said the university is continuing in its trajectory of women empowerment with females dominating in this year’s graduation ceremony scheduled to take place next week.
MUT chancellor, Professor Marcus Ramogale, said the university will cap a total of 2 858 graduands during its graduation ceremonies to be held from April 17 to 22 at MUT’s Pixley Seme Hall.
“Female graduates account for 57.63% of all graduands compared to their male counterparts at just 42.37%.”
Ramogale said the statistics painted a picture of a university that takes its role of empowering the youth with education seriously.
“The fact that more women graduate with a university qualification at MUT than their male counterparts is not in any way a small feat. These figures not only resonate with the national gender statistics but also tell a story of redress through education. MUT is playing its role in the fight for gender equality.”
Ramogale said that when more women graduate with a higher education qualification, the world becomes a better place.
“Women are overwhelmingly ahead of the pack in the Faculty of Management Sciences, and ahead with a narrow margin in the Natural Sciences. The Faculty of Engineering remains the one area where males account for 62.42% of the 737 graduands to be capped in that faculty.”
He added that engineering is “one of those fields where women’s representation is greatly needed to change the misleading and sexist perception that males do better in engineering”.
“We are confident that with the kind of support we offer our students and the new engineering building, along with its infrastructure, more students will get an opportunity to reach their full potential.”
Ramogale said that this year’s graduation will be the first where newly installed chancellor Sandile Zungu, who was inaugurated last month, will get to cap graduates.