Rhodes Business School Senior Lecturer, Professor Tshidi Mohapeloa has been unanimously elected by all 26 public universities as the Deputy Chairperson of the national Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education (EDHE) Communities of Practice (CoP) for Entrepreneurship Learning and Teaching. EDHE is a unit under Universities South Africa (USAf).
The third annual EDHE Kick-Off 2021 took place virtually in a three-day event from 24 to 26 March under the EDHE theme of the year, encouraging entrepreneurship against all odds. All 26 public universities were represented.
In her role as deputy chair, Professor Tshidi Mohapeloa will work closely with chairperson Dr Thea van der Westhuizen, Academic Leader for Management and Entrepreneurship at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Mohapeloa said the programme is to develop the students’ entrepreneurial mindsets and behaviours towards entrepreneurship. “Durban University of Technology made it mandatory for all different units to have the entrepreneurship elements in their core. This is a good pilot process and we want to encourage all universities to adopt this attitude,” she said.
As a core convener, Mohapeloa said she has to bring in institutions to share with them what’s happening in their entrepreneurship teaching spaces and how this CoP can support them in three spheres: teaching on entrepreneurship, teaching about entrepreneurship and teaching for entrepreneurship.
“For Rhodes University, this is an elevation in terms of entrepreneurship development in higher education. We are known for taking the lead in the teaching and learning space. I am starting to look at how we can involve platforms the University is known for into this,” she concluded.
Professor Mohapeloa will serve as the Deputy Chairperson for a period of three years.
