South African-based private higher education institution Belgium Campus iTversity will tomorrow confer IT degrees on six deaf students, according to a statement.
A first for the campus, the students will graduate with a three-year Bachelor of Information Technology (BIT) degree, after previously completing the institution’s Diploma in IT.
The graduating students are: Admar Claassen, Nkululeko Lekokoane, Violen Moonee, Yazeed Moosa, Sieshane Perumal and Trevolin Pillay.
“We collaborate with the industry to provide these students with the financial support necessary to forge successful futures through higher education,” says Dr Elaine van Wyk, CMO at Belgium Campus.
“We are the first higher education institution in the country to offer a dedicated Bachelor’s Degree and IT Diploma for deaf students.
“We have also made provision to allow students with other disabilities, long-term medical conditions, or special needs to complete their IT studies with us. This allows us to breathe life into the tremendous talents and business concepts of often marginalised groups within society.”
Established in 1999, Belgium Campus has campuses in Pretoria, Kempton Park and Stellenbosch.
The institution aims to address the country’s widening skills gap and ensure all graduates are employable in an evolving economic environment, according to Van Wyk. It provides 8% of the ICT graduates in SA, she reveals.
“Our success stems from our adoption of a proactive participative development model of education. It considers the needs of all stakeholders (students, industry, academia, government and society), resulting in demand-driven, student-centred and business-focused higher learning.”
Belgium Campus has been affording deaf students the opportunity to pursue IT qualifications since 2015, at which time the institution only had eight deaf students. Today, it has over 30 deaf students.
Belgium Campus makes its courses accessible to deaf students by providing South African Sign Language interpreters throughout each course and limiting the class sizes to ensure each student gets dedicated time and attention.
In addition to catering for deaf students, the institution is developing a technical deaf dictionary, to further open the doors to deaf students entering the IT economy.
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