Mangosuthu University of Technology(MUT) is situated on the outskirts of Durban and overlooks the beautiful Indian Ocean. University education is tertiary education that provides students with career oriented skills through a combination of theoretical knowledge and practical experience in the work place.MUT co-operates closely with commerce and industry to ensure that the curriculum of a particular qualification is completely relevant to the chosen field and that the qualification is market related.Theoretical studies as well as a period of in-service training form part of the programme. Graduates enter the workplace equipped with the essential knowledge, range of abilities and practical experience relevant to their chosen careers.

Core Purpose of MUT
To contribute to the advancement of vocation-based education and training that will enhance the country's skills and competitiveness for the development of humanity. The needs of the community and the RDP are a central focus in all programmes the university undertakes.

Core Values
A successful strategic planning process defines the common purposes that bring and hold together the many elements of the University Community. The commitment to academic excellence drives the three parts of the University Mission: teaching, research and community service and development. By stressing excellence in our academic standards and the teaching, research and service it fosters; by supporting and celebrating the diversity of our community; by emphasising the importance of teaching and encouraging a shared sense of responsibility, we will be able to realise our collective obligation to use our resources wisely and creatively in accomplishing our vision and mission.

The Vision
The Mangosuthu University of Technology will strive to be a leading university of technology in the SADC region and on the African continent, and to that end will be driven by a desire for excellence in the performance of its main functions: teaching, learning, research and community service.

The University commits itself to the total education of the individual student as a social being and seeks to develop the whole person in terms of personal well-being and social and intellectual competence. The University’s graduates will be well-rounded individuals, independent of mind, life-long learners, and equipped for success in today’s global, intercultural workplace.

The University commits itself to employing and developing staff with the capacity to contribute to the production of knowledge in a kindly working environment.

The University will strive to be a vibrant intellectual centre and an agent of positive social change. It will function as a learning organisation - one that inspires all of the members of its diverse community to achieve their full potential - and will actively promote the quality of life of the University community and the communities in which the University is embedded.

The Mission

General
The mission of the University is to advance learning and knowledge in both fundamental and applied areas. In order to make the achievement of that goal possible the University will provide an open environment and an atmosphere conducive to the exchange of knowledge, views and innovative ideas among students, staff, alumni and visiting scholars. The University will ensure that the working environment is intellectually stimulating and emotionally pleasurable for students and staff, and will ensure that graduates and diplomates possess knowledge, professional competence, a sense of community responsibility, and a capacity to continue their professional development throughout their lives.

In recruiting students and staff the University will respond to national and regional human resource needs and will eschew any form of unfair discrimination. The University will be particularly sensitive to the need to ensure gender and racial equity.

The University will strive to enable its students and graduates to reach their full personal and professional potential through the promotion of entrepreneurship and creative practice among its students and the promotion of lifelong learning among its alumni.

The University will seek through its outreach activities to enrich the lives of the communities in which it is situated economically, intellectually, culturally, and in any other ways desired by those communities.

Students
The University will strive to provide access to a wide range of students while promoting the interests of students from disadvantaged backgrounds in particular. In doing so the University will develop and offer academic and professional programmes leading to the award of degrees and diplomas which emphasise planning skills, adaptive skills, technical skills, and maintenance, development and productive skills in the engineering, scientific, agricultural, biomedical and allied professional disciplines. The aim of these programmes will be to produce socially mature men and women able not only to understand, use and adapt existing technology but also to improve on it and invent new technology.

Research
The University will promote the performance of both basic and applied research and development by members of the University community, and will foster applied product-oriented research as an integral part of staff responsibility.

Outreach
The University will interact with the local community in an attempt to improve the quality of life in that locality, and will organise continuing education programmes with the purpose of updating the knowledge and skills of working professionals in the communities served by the institution. In addition, the University will interact with industry through the placement of students in such firms for the purposes of experiential learning, and the offering of consultancy services to industry and other organisations desiring such assistance. In order to ensure that it remains an institution of genuine quality the University will also establish and pursue partnerships and collaborative arrangements with individual supporters, convocation, professional associations, educational institutions and corporate entities at regional, national and international level.

Values
The University will always operate in the context of a frame of values including integrity, respect and care for others, a sense of fair play, and a desire for excellence. In its operations the University will attach special importance to respect for human and civic rights and to academic freedom. Every member of its community will be free to express his or her thoughts, opinions and convictions while respecting ethical principles and the law. It is categorically required of all staff and students of the University that they conduct themselves in accordance with these core values.

Strategies
The key to the university’s success will be the recognition of the legitimacy and value of knowledge created in work settings and the understanding of the drivers of change in the workplace – emerging technologies, social patterns, cultural imperatives, business processes and internationalisation. The teaching and learning model will combine teaching, research, and industry-based learning expertise in the offering of programmes which provide clear professional outcomes for students within a supportive real world learning environment. The University will ensure that it offers and regularly reviews an appropriate curriculum based on current research, and employs an assessment system geared to supporting the learning process and validating the students’ achievements. The university will work towards the introduction of a set of postgraduate programmes aligned with its vision and mission statements.

The University will attempt to ensure proficiency in students in their domain of study as well as in soft skills (such as IT and Communicative English), and will within the limits of its capacity provide support to students by offering scholarships, bursaries and other forms of financial aid.

The University will seek to build a strong national and regional research profile in a discrete number of research areas, with an emphasis on collaborative research with industry, business and government, and will promote interdisciplinary and team research work wherever this is likely to be productive. And the University will strive to disseminate its research expertise and demonstrate and implement the results of its research.

The University will create an open and flexible organisational culture which is committed to quality outcomes and which facilitates knowledge sharing, teamwork, and staff satisfaction and development. Its intellectual energy, progressiveness, authentic commitment to its core values and generous conditions of employment will attract high-calibre, dynamic staff. Members of staff will have the opportunity to enhance their knowledge and skills and will be rewarded for their contributions to the achievement of the University’s mission.

The University will relate closely with all of its stakeholders, and will in particular maintain ties with its alumni, to the mutual benefit of the institution and of its past students. And the University will co-operate with other innovative academic institutions to share expertise where possible, especially in the areas of teaching and research.

The University will from time to time review the extent to which it is realising its vision and fulfilling its mission, employing best practice in quality assurance processes to do so. These processes will include the performance of annual first-year experience and exit-year experience surveys.

The University will at regular intervals also review its vision and mission statements and its strategy for implementing and realising them, in the context of the inevitability of change and the need for the institution to make further progress.