Vaal University of Technology (South Africa)

Vaal University of Technology (VUT) is a public university south of Johannesburg, South Africa. VUT began as a college for Advanced Technical Education in 1966, becoming a technikon in 1979 and a full university in 2003. Today, it is one of the largest residential Universities of Technology in South Africa, with four campuses and about 17,000 students. VUT includes Community Service in its mission: “To create a culture of Lifelong Learning to empower our communities by sharing knowledge, skills and resources.” VUT’s website>>

Institute of Sustainable Livelihoods

The ISL seeks to use research as a tool aiming to reduce poverty, malnutrition, and household food insecurity in the Vaal region of South Africa. ISL works to train and build capacity to address poverty and its resulting consequences in Africa. It also aims to deliver research of high quality that is relevant, challenging and stimulating critical thinking in order to increase accredited research outputs and create breakthroughs and competitiveness in the field of study nationally and internationally. Research activities in this area began in 1999 with a grant from the National Research Foundation, and the Institute of Sustainable Livelihoods was formally established in 2006. The ISL collaborates with various local, national, and international partners, including universities in the UK, New Zealand, India, and Benin. Learn more>>

Centre for Community Services and Lifelong Learning

The Centre is involved with industry, offering a range of in-house courses that are tailor-made to meet the needs of industry, and with the local communities in a range of Service Learning activities. Projects identified are communicated to the academic faculties for research projects by postgraduate students.