NMMU - An Unfinished Journey:

Ten years. Six campuses, seven faculties, two cities, over 26500 students, 2300 staff members, 450 academic programmes and diverging linkages with industry, communities, state institutions and universities on six continents. And what an inspiring, memorable and eventful journey it has been since 2005.

Going forward into the next decade, NMMU is poised to break exciting new grounds on the back of two major new developments.

Firstly, its quest to build a new Medical School to serve huge demand for medical and expanded health care training in the Eastern and Southern Cape regions – not only medical doctors, but also mid-level health care specialists to support the national health service. From 2013, we began introducing a new set of healthcare training programmes such as pharmacy technicians, assistants, dietetics, emergency healthcare, and clinical associates in preparation of full-scale medical education. Clearly, government and private sector support will be crucial for scaling up these programmes, but we are confident that our case speaks for itself – modern infrastructure to build on, a large metropolitan city with three major public hospitals and a diversified private healthcare sector, strong support from the healthcare professional communities, and a respected academic brand.

Secondly, our goal to create a new Marine and Maritime Sciences faculty / campus via which NMMU is positioning itself to become the leading marine and maritime university on the continent.

We believe NMMU is in the strongest position to do so: our current capabilities in marine sciences, engineering, law and development studies, modern infrastructure, prime location at the sea, two major ports in Port Elizabeth and Nqura, strong support from the private sector, including state corporations, and crucially, explicit and public support by Government for our marine and maritime strategy. Towards this end, NMMU has already launched a brand new SA International Maritime Institute (SAIMI), planning to launch a new Marine and Coastal Institute; acquire and retool a new campus in which our maritime and marine sciences assets would be located and developed; forge strong links with technical and vocational colleges; build strong linkages with industry; attract major new investment for research, training and innovation.

Alongside this, NMMU will be constantly modernising and transforming its academic programmes across all faculties to maintain its relevance, responsiveness and competitive qualities.

As we go into the future, our goal is to build NMMU into a cutting-edge African university recognised for its contribution to a sustainable tomorrow.