Three Out of Four Maties | What Student Success Looks Like for Commuter Students
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SU Student Success Initiative Series: Episode Six.
Recorded on Tuesday, 01 September 2026.
Three out of every four Maties do not live in a university residence. Some walk in from Victoria Street. Some are up before dawn for a taxi from Khayelitsha or a lift club from Worcester. This conversation is about what student success looks like from there, and about the community waiting for you whether or not you know it exists.
Jacolette Kloppers hosts the sixth of 15 conversations on Lunch Club, joined by Nyakallo Leotlela and Gené van Wyk, Coordinators for Commuter Student Communities in the Centre for Student Life and Learning, and by two student leaders from the Rubix Cluster: Liam Rodgers, incoming Primarius of Pieke, and Kgothatso Gaotingwe, incoming Primaria of Venustia.
What we cover in this episode:
- The number nobody expects: Gené puts the 2026 commuter population at roughly 26 000 students across SU and Tygerberg, undergraduate to PhD. That is about three-quarters of the entire student body. Commuter students are not a minority group at this university. They are the majority.
- Why 'private student' became 'commuter student': Nyakallo explains the shift away from the old PSO (Private Student Organisation) label after benchmarking against international institutions. The old term described where you were not, rather than who you are.
- The real cost of the commute: Time, distance, petrol, traffic, early mornings and late nights due to commuting. Liam is candid about the fatigue that builds and what it does to both well-being and marks. Nyakallo notes that residence students are statistically likelier to finish their degrees on time, and that commuter students defy those odds anyway.
- What is actually available to you: Your cluster, hubs with showers and study spaces, open dining halls you can access with your student card, mentors allocated from day one, study centres, sports and gatherings that you already pay for. Even the soft seating in faculty buildings exists because a task team noticed commuter students had nowhere to sit between classes.
- Not a home away from home: Nyakallo and Gené disagree with the phrase. A home is the building and the bed. What a commuter student community offers is exactly that - a community - and belonging is what makes you want to contribute to it.
- Missing Welcoming is not the end of the world: Kgothatso arrived late during the Dream Walk, and describes the mentor who spotted her looking lost. She went on to serve on the first-year committee, was selected as mentor, was elected as member of the House Committee, and is now Primaria. Liam's advice is simply to show up - try one or two things a term, and leave Stellenbosch with a degree and no regrets.
Where to find support:
Email the CSC Unit at cscu@sun.ac.za, or visit 9 Bosman Street, Stellenbosch, opposite Heemstede residence.
Not sure which Commuter Student Community you belong to? You should have received an email. If not, mail cscu@sun.ac.za and they will look you up.
Venustia: @venustiacsc | Pieke: @pieke_1973
The CSC Annual Questionnaire were sent to all CSC students - please check your SU e-mail inbox. Fill it in - it shapes institutional decisions.
SU website: https://www.su.ac.za/en/students/success
Recorded on Tuesday, 01 September 2026.
Three out of every four Maties do not live in a university residence. Some walk in from Victoria Street. Some are up before dawn for a taxi from Khayelitsha or a lift club from Worcester. This conversation is about what student success looks like from there, and about the community waiting for you whether or not you know it exists.
Jacolette Kloppers hosts the sixth of 15 conversations on Lunch Club, joined by Nyakallo Leotlela and Gené van Wyk, Coordinators for Commuter Student Communities in the Centre for Student Life and Learning, and by two student leaders from the Rubix Cluster: Liam Rodgers, incoming Primarius of Pieke, and Kgothatso Gaotingwe, incoming Primaria of Venustia.
What we cover in this episode:
- The number nobody expects: Gené puts the 2026 commuter population at roughly 26 000 students across SU and Tygerberg, undergraduate to PhD. That is about three-quarters of the entire student body. Commuter students are not a minority group at this university. They are the majority.
- Why 'private student' became 'commuter student': Nyakallo explains the shift away from the old PSO (Private Student Organisation) label after benchmarking against international institutions. The old term described where you were not, rather than who you are.
- The real cost of the commute: Time, distance, petrol, traffic, early mornings and late nights due to commuting. Liam is candid about the fatigue that builds and what it does to both well-being and marks. Nyakallo notes that residence students are statistically likelier to finish their degrees on time, and that commuter students defy those odds anyway.
- What is actually available to you: Your cluster, hubs with showers and study spaces, open dining halls you can access with your student card, mentors allocated from day one, study centres, sports and gatherings that you already pay for. Even the soft seating in faculty buildings exists because a task team noticed commuter students had nowhere to sit between classes.
- Not a home away from home: Nyakallo and Gené disagree with the phrase. A home is the building and the bed. What a commuter student community offers is exactly that - a community - and belonging is what makes you want to contribute to it.
- Missing Welcoming is not the end of the world: Kgothatso arrived late during the Dream Walk, and describes the mentor who spotted her looking lost. She went on to serve on the first-year committee, was selected as mentor, was elected as member of the House Committee, and is now Primaria. Liam's advice is simply to show up - try one or two things a term, and leave Stellenbosch with a degree and no regrets.
Where to find support:
Email the CSC Unit at cscu@sun.ac.za, or visit 9 Bosman Street, Stellenbosch, opposite Heemstede residence.
Not sure which Commuter Student Community you belong to? You should have received an email. If not, mail cscu@sun.ac.za and they will look you up.
Venustia: @venustiacsc | Pieke: @pieke_1973
The CSC Annual Questionnaire were sent to all CSC students - please check your SU e-mail inbox. Fill it in - it shapes institutional decisions.
SU website: https://www.su.ac.za/en/students/success
