Boipelo Mere
Sol Plaatje University’s (SPU) Department of Institutional Advancement (DIA) brought home 5 awards from the MACE Excellence Awards in Johannesburg, in recognition of excellence in marketing, advancement and communication.
The prestigious gala dinner held on 13 November 2025 under the theme “The Human Touch: Marketing, Advancement and Communication in the Era of Social Media and Artificial Intelligence (AI).”
The DIA team received bronze medals for Campaigns, Channels, Skills, and group projects.
The institution congratulated the team for working hard, creativity and commitment to strengthening the University’s brand, fostering community and contributing to a vibrant institutional culture.
MACE fulfils a leadership role in the University, TVET and private higher education sector within Southern Africa through high-quality development programmes.
It is also facilitating networking partnerships and transformation, and promoting best practices across member institutions.
The 2025 Annual MACE conference and AGM officially began on Wednesday, 12 November, with a two-day programme that included a plenary session, panel discussions and keynote addresses.
Various sessions explored topics such as maintaining brand authenticity amid AI-generated content, innovation in advertising, advances in AI in education, breakaway sessions on events protocol and PR, the future of websites and AI-generated content and advancements in donor relations.
These were all aimed at encouraging and reminding communicators and marketers that even amid AI, authenticity and the human touch matter most in communication.
Representing SPU were the Communication and Marketing Unit.
The team also attended the Young Blood Mentoring Workshop, a new addition to the MACE programme, which focused on empowering young professionals through discussions on redefining marketing in higher education. It further touched on navigating opportunities and challenges as well as understanding one’s value in salary negotiations.
The DIA team participated in two group projects, which were both selected as winners, an impressive achievement for SPU.
SPU received five awards at the Excellence Awards Gala Dinner in three divisions.
Comments are closed.