After losing accreditation for both its law and its bachelor of science degrees in prosthetics and orthotics, Walter Sisulu University had reason to celebrate on Thursday.
This is because the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica) has given the university the thumbs up to offer its accountancy training.
The university celebrated being accredited by Saica on Thursday at the Zamukulungisa site in Mthatha, which was packed with prospective chartered accountants.
The university previously lost the accreditation but elated vice-chancellor Professor Rob Midgley said the first group of students doing the chartered accountancy course, offered in Mthatha, had written their board exams in 2017.
Midgley said they had started the programme to get the degree re-accredited in 2012.
“We have over 100 degrees that we offer here and there are only two that are currently in a state where we need to fix [things],” he said.
“There are some programmes, like with our medical students, where we really shine and it is so nice to be able to say we are winning.
“The doors of learning are open and our prospective students do not have to go very far to get a quality education.
“We are building new [accounting] classroom facilities and we are also building new accommodation so that we can house students,” he said.
Elated trainee accountant Zukhanye Tyaka said he had wanted to study accounting from a young age.
Accountancy student Simamkele Mcinga said: “No one would have expected that in the space of five years the programme would have been granted its accreditation.
“We are very happy.”
Saica nation building executive Chantyl Mulder said WSU students who qualified as chartered accountants could be immensely proud.
“Proud of building the reputation of this university and proud of the kind of chartered accountants you are going to be,” she said, calling on the prospective students to remember the concept of shared value.
WSU lost its LLB and bachelor of science degrees in prosthetics and orthotics because it failed to attract professors and doctors to relocate to Mthatha and lecture there.
Its poor infrastructure was also flagged as one of the reasons it was stripped of its accreditation...