The University of the Western Cape (UWC) has launched three initiatives for the roll-out of around 1 200 computers for use by students during the current year.
The three initiatives are: the 1 000 Computers Project that saw UWC roll-out 1 050 refurbished Pentium III computers in 32 venues across the campus, the BoE IT Room in the Economic and Management Sciences Faculty, and the refurbished 50-station Sun thin client lab in the computer science department.
"This represents a major step in ensuring that UWC continues to play a vital role in building the intellectual fabric of our nation," says UWC rector Brian O`Connell.
He says partnerships are vital to the university and these three initiatives are based on successful partnerships of different kinds.
"This is a major attempt at addressing physical access," says Derek Keats, executive director of information and communication services. "It does not completely close the physical access gap, but it does have a significant impact. Many of the labs are rolled out in partnership with organisations on campus that will add value to the computers through a variety of teaching-and-learning and other activities that will take place in the labs."
The BoE IT Room was established as a result of a partnership with the BoE Educational Foundation. The 1 000 Computers Project was a partnership with Close-the-Gap, a Belgian non-governmental organisation that has partnerships with the private sector in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Shipping group Safmarine donated the shipping and logistics expertise.
The Sun lab involves a partnership with Sun Microsystems and its local solution provider, Breakpoint Solutions.
"The impact of these partnerships goes far, far beyond simply putting computers in a room," says Keats. "They are putting possibilities into people`s lives. That`s what makes it exciting and worthwhile."
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