UP Campus Tours celebrates 16 years

The University of Pretoria Campus Tours (UPCT) recently celebrated its 16th birthday. Initiated by Prof Karen Harris, UPCT has grown to become an excellent business simulation exercise for the Heritage and Cultural Tourism honour’s programme students from the Department of Historical and Heritage Studies. 

Each year, a group of newly graduated students take up the challenge of running and managing an income-generating business, through offering tours of the Hatfield campus. While the venture forms a large practical component of their honours degree programme, it also promotes the University to prospective students, visiting academics, exchange students, clients from Enterprises and a range of international delegates.

The 2019 UPCT students are pictured officially sporting their newly branded golf T-shirt, courtesy of Enterprises UP. The 14 students accepted their new gear at a small handover ceremony attended by the students and Prof Harris and her colleague Ms Herselman. Still, after all these years, Prof Harris speaks so passionately about the business and her students. “Mr Herbst supported the project from its humble beginnings. We are happy to have the opportunity to continue to run this programme, year on year. It is a great opportunity for us to continue to give great practical experience to our students combining their knowledge base and research skills in a formative manner” expressed Prof Harris.  

“As your leaders, we are responsible for nurturing your skills and ensuring that you develop within an environment that promotes your success,” said Deon Herbst to the students. “You are even more fortunate to be a part of a programme steered by a leader who fought for, and believes in the programme.”  

This year, the Faculty of Humanities celebrates its centenary and to commemorate this the students’ T-shirts have been branded accordingly. In addition, the UP Campus Tours students will be hosting a “Walk back in Time” to celebrate Humanities 100 and will also be developing an expansion pack for the interactive UP campus board game that challenges the knowledge of players on the history and heritage of the University. While this remains under development, the original game developed in 2011 has been enjoyed by many across campus and in residences and is an amazing achievement completed by the Department of Historical and Heritage Studies and the University of Pretoria Archives. It won the national MACE Excellence Award for “Outstanding Performance amongst Practitioners in Higher and Further Education”.

Click here for more information on UP Campus Tours, or to book a visit.