Official Richfield Graduate Institute Website | https://www.richfield.ac.za

History

Richfield Graduate Institute of Technology commenced operations in 1990 in Tongaat as a Computer Training Centre. It established branches in various provinces and today has a national footprint.

Registration

The Institution is accredited by the Council on Higher Education (CHE), Umalusi, the Quality Council on Trades and Occupations (QCTO) and numerous SETAs.

Richfield Graduate Institute of Technology (Pty) Ltd is registered with the Department of Higher Education & Training as a Private Higher Education Institution under the Higher Education Act, 1997, Registration Certificate No. 2000/HE07/008 & as a Private Education College under the Continuing Education & Training Act, 2006 (Act No. 16 of 2006), Registration Certificate No. 2008/FE07/050.

Richfield operates Higher Education, Technical, Vocational & Further Education Training, Distance Learning and Short Learning Programmes with campuses located across major cities and rural sectors in South Africa. Higher Education Programmes are offered at Higher Certificate, Advanced Certificate, Diploma, Degree, Post Graduate Diploma and Honours levels in the Faculties of Information and Communications Technology; Business, Economics and Management Sciences and Public Administration. The institution has a proud track record of 30 years in operation with 33 accredited Higher Education sites, and 22 accredited programmes.  Over 300 000 students having completed a range of programmes over this period.

Richfield is jointly owned by its founders and by Investec Africa Private Equity, a closed-end fund which is managed by Investec Asset Management (“IAM”). IAM acquired a majority controlling stake of Richfield Holdings (Pty) Ltd in 2018.

Capital Investment

With Capital Expenditure of over One Billion Rands invested in Campus Infrastructure, Richfield committed a further R100 million investment to improve the quality of teaching for learning by using technology in education. This learning initiative revolutionized and enhanced learning experiences in the education process in South Africa.

Since 2012, over 100 000 Tablet PCs were acquired amounting to R118 million, which were made available to students registering for Higher and Further Education qualifications, free of charge, when they enroll at the College. Students receive most of their learning material pre-loaded and readily available from their Tablet PC’s creating a culture of student-centeredness. The Tablet PC’s compact, convertible design allows students to comfortably make use of the device in small spaces. Tablet PCs also include wireless Wi-Fi, Tablet PC charging stations and internet support.

Moodle

Moodle is an online Learning Management System (LMS) enabling educators to create dynamic courses that extend learning, anytime, anywhere.

Lecturers use Moodle to provide course materials such as handouts, lecture notes and PowerPoint presentations and may use Moodle in more interactive ways, which will require more input. Activities such as discussion forums, chat rooms, quizzes and assignment drop-boxes are often used.

Library And E-Library

Higher Education students have the added advantage of accessing e–libraries irrespective of where they are, empowering them to draw from a wider range of research material from all over the world.  Products of digital resources have been purchased with the aim to create a modern, accomplished, user-friendly and simple to use electronic library. The Institution has partnered with some of the world’s greatest academic digital publishers such as Elsevier ScienceDirect, Emerald Group Publishing, Springer Nature, PressReader and WARC Resources to provide free access to a range of e-newspapers, e-magazines, e-books, e-cases and e-journals to its students.

The campus library consists not only of prescribed textbooks but also books of many categories such as fiction, non-fiction, reference materials and training collections.

Richfield Graduate hosts their Annual Academic Library Conference. The conference is held to create an opportunity for academic book publishers, academics and librarians to engage on significant issues in support of quality library, information services & librarianship nationally

Quality Management And Quality Assurance

As its own initiative since 2000, the Institution had committed to a formal, Total Quality Management System and was accredited with the SABS ISO 9001: 2000 Quality Standard for all its campuses. While the revised SABS ISO 9001: 2008 standard supports and supplements the requirements of regulatory agencies including the HEQC and other ETQA’s; it was deemed necessary to migrate to ISO 9001:2015 standards. Richfield successfully completed a rigorous ISO international audit and is proud to announce its ISO 9001:2015 status together with OSHAS 18001:2007 Certification.

The IQMF of the Institution is informed by the quality assurance requirements of, amongst others, the Council of Higher Education’s Higher Education Quality Committee, and the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA).

Academic & Corporate Governance

Academic, Corporate Governance and Leadership is provided through various structures at Campus level, Regionally and Nationally. All Sub-Committees are delegated Board Committees.

The Curriculum, Innovation, Design and Development (CIDD) and Senate members pay particular attention to regulatory compliance, advisory and oversight of all academic activities. External academic and industry representation on the Board Committees ensure that the content of programmes are constantly evaluated against industry and employer requirements and benchmarked nationally and internationally.

Work Integrated Learning (WIL)

The quality promotion and capacity development activities of the Institution have been included in the conducting of workshops and training sessions, to align WIL to the CHE’s Good Practice Guide. Due consideration is given to the educational purpose and the role of work-integrated learning in teaching and learning ensuring that students graduating from their programmes are prepared for the world, in which they will live and work. Work-integrated learning is incorporated into all programme offerings and requires appropriate workplace assessment for all students before the awarding of qualifications.

Work integrated learning is undertaken in the final year of study. The time allocated for WIL is in line with the notional hours for the module. Students are provided with log books that outlines the purpose, rationale, roles and responsibility of the stake holders involved. These log books are developed in line with the programme exit outcomes which are aligned to SAQA Level Descriptors.

Work Readiness Programme (WRP)

The Work Readiness Programme is not included in the curriculum of the qualification but is a pre-requisite to the Work Integrated Learning Programme. The WRP programme has the following components:

• Academic Literacy Skills
• Financial and Numeracy Skills
• Social and Emotional Skills
• Self-Management Skills
• Work Readiness Skills

The WRP Student Guide is intended to complement the group workshops that students attend and participate in. Student’s interactive participation on Moodle is digitally recorded and tracked. Students undertake online assessments prior to being placed into industry for WIL.

Management Information Systems (MIS)

The implementation of the Integrated Campus Administration System (ICAS) has contributed to the development of the Institution’s MIS and facilitated integration into the HEQCIS, Umalusi and SETA MIS eventually working its way to the NLRD.