Being a Tuks Marketing student will, however, mean something slightly different from 2013. From this year on, the Department of Marketing Management will operate as a fully-fledged academic department in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences since its split from Communication Management.

To celebrate this (and show that the new department will stand on its own feet from the get-go), a group of about 800 first-year marketing students took part in an event during the University’s annual Welcoming Week. The event showcased the Department’s 2013 apt theme ‘On the Move’ as well as its corroboration with the Gautrain. According to the new Head of Department, Prof Yolanda Jordaan, each first-year student received a Gautrain Gold Card with one sponsored trip uploaded and the Department also handed out textbook prizes to lucky first-year students. To celebrate the ‘On the Move’ theme for the year, marketing students were motivated by top industry speakers, including Melinda Bam. The release of 1000 red balloons was a colourful end to the event. New Marketing students also got an opportunity to sign the ‘On the Move’ banner.

The University of Pretoria was the first university in South Africa to offer a degree programme in Marketing when the first chair in Marketing Management was established as part of the then Department of Business Economics in 1970. The first degrees in BCom (Marketing Management) were awarded in March 1973.