UP currently presents five programmes that are funded by a provision grant of the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) Foundation. These include the Four-year programmes for BSc, BSc (IT), BIS Multimedia and BCom, as well the ENGAGE programme offered by the Faculty of Engineering, Build Environment and Information Technology.

According to Dr Quenton Kritzinger, Director of the UP Four-year Programme, “staff members seldom get the opportunity to discuss and exchange thoughts about their experiences and teaching practices, even with staff within the same programme, due to the intensive nature of the programmes. The need exists for staff members to discuss and share their teaching experiences in the extended programmes,” Dr Kritzinger emphasised.

Dr Kritzinger also explained that staff members use different methods and strategies in their teaching that could be of value to others. Therefore, this initiative will provide a platform to share these strategies with their fellow colleagues. This Teaching and Learning Day will provide a dedicated period of time for staff within these programmes to share their experiences and practices on teaching and learning, and also share their research activities (and the different theories they use in the process) with other staff members. Through this we want to facilitate communication between the different extended programmes at UP and to promote development of staff in terms of scholarship of teaching and learning,

Prof Marietjie Potgieter, Deputy Dean: Teaching and Learning in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences delivered the opening address on the topic Overconfidence: Both a virtue and a vice.