In the UK, according to current government plans, every home will have access to broadband internet by 2012. But if South African broadband costs remain in their current price brackets, higher education will suffer, professors predict.

Most students in a survey recently undertaken by Eduloan took out an average of 3.2 loans just to finance one year of study. And the reason topping the dropout list? Pure lack of finances and badly managed money.

The University of Kwa-Zulu Natal became the first university in South Africa to use podcasting as an educational tool when it launched its new media initiative at the Westville campus earlier this month.Through a R1 million partnership with UKZN Innovation, the School of Information Systems and Technology (IS&T), the University Research Office and the Core Group, students will have access to lectures on their PCs and mobile phones via the Internet.

South Africa, the rest of Africa and China are depend on each other, says China expert at USB South Africa. The rest of Africa’s economies are dependent on that of China, while this Asian powerhouse is dependent on the supply of commodities from the continent both now and in the future.

How can social entrepreneurs build a sustainable business that will benefit the poor? Dr Elbé Coetzee and her son Will, a final year MBA student at the University of Stellenbosch Business School (USB), embarked on social entrepreneurship to grow a family business, Mogalakwena Craft Art (MCA), into a sustainable business over a period of 15 years.