University of the Western Cape

Last updated

University of the Western Cape
UWC logo.svg
Other names
Bush, uDubs
Motto Latin: Respice Prospice
Motto in English
"Look Ahead"
Type Public university
Established1959;65 years ago (1959)
Academic affiliations
ACU, CHEC, HESA, IAU
Chancellor Thabo Makgoba
Vice-Chancellor Tyrone Pretorius
Students23,000+ (2023) [1]
Undergraduates 15,840
Postgraduates 6,160
Location
Robert Sobukwe Road, Bellville, Western Cape
,
South Africa
CampusUrban setting
Mascot Bushie
Website www.uwc.ac.za
Entry to Central campus from the west University of the Western Cape - Central Campus entry.jpg
Entry to Central campus from the west
View towards the main library University of the Western Cape - View towards main library.jpg
View towards the main library
Circular interior of the main library University of Western Cape - Inside main library.jpg
Circular interior of the main library

The University of the Western Cape (UWC; Afrikaans : Universiteit van Wes-Kaapland) is a public research university in Bellville, near Cape Town, South Africa. The university was established in 1959 by the South African government as a university for Coloured people only. Other universities in Cape Town are the University of Cape Town (originally for English-speaking whites), Cape Peninsula University of Technology, and Stellenbosch University (originally for Afrikaans-speaking whites). The establishing of UWC was a direct effect of the Extension of University Education Act, 1959. This law accomplished the segregation of higher education in South Africa. Coloured students were only allowed at a few non-white universities. In this period, other "ethnical" universities, such as the University of Zululand and the University of the North, were founded as well. Since well before the end of apartheid in South Africa in 1994, it has been an integrated and multiracial institution.

Contents

History

Early days

UWC started as a "bush college", a university college without autonomy under the auspices of the University of South Africa. The university offered a limited training for lower-to-middle-level positions in schools and the civil service. In the first years of its existence, a great deal of the teaching staff was white. Many of the lecturers came from Stellenbosch University. The language in most lectures was Afrikaans. The first rector was N. J. Sieberhagen (from 1960 until 1973). The university started as a small institution: in the first year, 166 students were enrolled and the teaching staff numbered 17. In 1970, the institution gained university status and was able to award its own degrees and diplomas. [2]

Resistance against apartheid

During the first 15 years, the board and staff were primarily whites, supporting the National Party and apartheid. One of the few exceptions was Adam Small, head of the philosophy department. Small was dismissed in 1973 as a consequence of his involvement in the Black Consciousness Movement.[ citation needed ] Apart from lecturers like Small, there were many students who were active in the struggle against apartheid, and who were loyal to the Black Consciousness Movement. Protests from students against the conservative university board and lack of participation in the university led to the appointment of the first coloured rector, Richard E. van der Ross in 1975.[ citation needed ] The years thereafter gave way to a more liberal atmosphere, in which the university gradually distanced itself from apartheid. In 1982, the university rejected the apartheid ideology formally in its mission statement; during the next year, the university gained the same autonomy as white universities through the University of the Western Cape Act.[ citation needed ]

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, numerous UWC students were involved in the creation of Bush Radio, an anti-apartheid media project which distributed political and cultural radio programming via cassette tape due to the lack of a license to broadcast on a conventional radio platform. By 1993, the station went to air as a pirate radio station, and eventually became South Africa's first licensed community radio station. [3]

Rector Jakes Gerwel made UWC an "intellectual home of the left", with attention to social and political issues. The university attracted increasing numbers of students from disadvantaged communities. Apart from coloured people, more and more black students enrolled. Gerwel was succeeded in 1995 by Cecil Abrahams, who was succeeded by Brian O'Connell in 2001. UWC retained the status of an autonomous university during the education restructuring of 2002.

UWC is the only African institution that is a member of the OpenCourseWare Consortium (OCWC), and was voted onto the OCWC board in 2007.[ citation needed ]

Today

UWC is a research-rich environment. The academic staff is highly qualified, with 50% holding doctorates. Most departments have graduate programmes, some with the largest intake in the country. There are many institutes and centres with a strong research emphasis, and there are significant projects and programmes which draw on expertise across departments and faculties. There are also joint endeavours between the University of the Western Cape, the University of Cape Town, and Stellenbosch University. 20% of all students at UWC are postgraduates.

Like other South African universities, UWC has been affected by sporadic student protests since 2015. The reasons for the protests change with each new period of protest. They began with the Fees Must Fall movement [4] where the main goal was to get university fees to be state-funded and then grew to include issues surrounding student safety and accommodation. These protests often lead to the shutdown of academic activities at the university. Most recently academic activities were suspended from 5 February 2020 to 7 February 2020 due to a delay in financial clearance which left many students unable to register for the new year. [5]

Research at UWC has an international dimension. UWC's major network of international partners ensures a flow of students and eminent scholars from other countries to enrich the environment. Some major projects are undertaken jointly with partners abroad. Many UWC scholars speak at international conferences and publish in internationally respected journals and books. And there is a strong and growing relationship with institutions in other countries in Africa, Europe and North America, leading to research partnerships, joint capacity building, and a flow of postgraduate students to UWC. In addition, UWC Honours and Master's graduates have won a number of major international scholarships. They have done well in doctoral programmes abroad. [6]

Ranking

In 2014, Webometrics ranked the university the sixth best in South Africa, seventh best in Africa and 885th in the world. Webometrics ranked both the university's Faculty of Law and Dentistry the best in Africa. [7]

University of the Western Cape World Ranking University of the Western Cape World Ranking.png
University of the Western Cape World Ranking
UWC Times Higher Education Ranking 2016 to 2024
YearWorld Rank
2024601–800
2023601–800
2022601–800
2021601–800
2020601–800
2019601–800
2018601–800
2017601-800
2016501-600
[8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21]

Children's Rights Project

The Children's Rights Project is a South African organisation. Located in the Community Law Centre, University of the Western Cape, its goal is the recognition and protection of children's rights within the framework of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.

Notable alumni

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Fort Hare</span> Public university in Alice, South Africa

The University of Fort Hare is a public university in Alice, Eastern Cape, South Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western Cape</span> Province of South Africa on the south-western coast

The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of 129,449 square kilometres (49,981 sq mi), and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020. About two-thirds of these inhabitants live in the metropolitan area of Cape Town, which is also the provincial capital. The Western Cape was created in 1994 from part of the former Cape Province. The two largest cities are Cape Town and George.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of the Witwatersrand</span> Public university in Johannesburg, South Africa

The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The university has its roots in the mining industry, as do Johannesburg and the Witwatersrand in general. Founded in 1896 as the South African School of Mines in Kimberley, it is the third oldest South African university in continuous operation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stellenbosch</span> Town in Western Cape, South Africa

Stellenbosch is a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa, situated about 50 kilometres east of Cape Town, along the banks of the Eerste River at the foot of the Stellenbosch Mountain. The town became known as the City of Oaks or Eikestad in Afrikaans and Dutch due to the large number of oak trees that were planted by its founder, Simon van der Stel, to grace the streets and homesteads.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Cape Town</span> Public university in Cape Town, South Africa

The University of Cape Town (UCT) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest university in Sub-Saharan Africa in continuous operation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of KwaZulu-Natal</span> Public university in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

The University of KwaZulu-Natal is a university with five campuses in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. It was formed on 1 January 2004 after the merger between the University of Natal and the University of Durban-Westville.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stellenbosch University</span> University in South Africa

Stellenbosch University is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant university in Sub-Saharan Africa, together with the University of Cape Town - which received full university status on the same day in 1918. Stellenbosch University designed and manufactured Africa's first microsatellite, SUNSAT, launched in 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Johannesburg</span> South African university

The University of Johannesburg (UJ) is a public university located in Johannesburg, South Africa. The University of Johannesburg came into existence on 1 January 2005 as the result of a merger between the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), the Technikon Witwatersrand (TWR) and the Soweto and East Rand campuses of Vista University. Prior to the merger, the Daveyton and Soweto campuses of the former Vista University had been incorporated into RAU. As a result of the merger of Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), it is common for alumni to refer to the university as RAU. The vice-chancellor and principal of UJ is Professor Letlhokwa George Mpedi who took office on 1 January 2023. Between 2018 and 2022, UJ's vice-chancellor and principal was Tshilidzi Marwala.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhodes University</span> University in Makhanda, South Africa

Rhodes University is a public research university located in Makhanda (Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province. Established in 1904, Rhodes University is the province's oldest university, and it is the sixth oldest South African university in continuous operation, being preceded by the University of the Free State (1904), University of Witwatersrand (1896), University of South Africa (1873) as the University of the Cape of Good Hope, Stellenbosch University (1866) and the University of Cape Town (1829). Rhodes was founded in 1904 as Rhodes University College, named after Cecil Rhodes, through a grant from the Rhodes Trust. It became a constituent college of the University of South Africa in 1918 before becoming an independent university in 1951.

Zoë Wicomb is a South African-Scottish author and academic who has lived in the UK since the 1970s. In 2013, she was awarded the inaugural Windham–Campbell Literature Prize for her fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tshwane University of Technology</span> Multi-campus university in South Africa

Tshwane University of Technology is a higher education institution in South Africa that came into being through a merger of three technikons — Technikon Northern Gauteng, Technikon North-West and Technikon Pretoria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of the Free State</span> Multi-campus public university in South Africa

The University of the Free State is a multi-campus public university in Bloemfontein, the capital of the Free State and the judicial capital of South Africa. It was first established as an institution of higher learning in 1904 as a tertiary section of Grey College. It was declared an independent Afrikaans-language university in 1950 and the name was changed to the University of the Orange Free State. The university has two satellite campuses. Initially a whites-only precinct, the university was fully de-segregated in 1996. The first black university vice-chancellor was appointed in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Sinton Secondary School</span> School in Athlone, Cape Town, South Africa

Alexander Sinton Secondary School, also known as Alexander Sinton High School, is an English-medium school in Athlone, a suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. The school is located in the Cape Flats, an area designated as non-white under the Group Areas Act during apartheid. The school was involved in the anti-apartheid student uprisings of the 1970s and 1980s. Staff and students at the school made headlines when they barricaded the police into their school in September 1985. The following month, three youths were killed near the school by police officers who opened fire on protesters in the Trojan Horse Incident. It was the first school to be visited by Nelson Mandela after his release from prison. As of 2014, the school has 1,100 pupils, half boys and half girls. The school employs 40 teachers and six non-teaching staff.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of South Africa</span> Largest public university in South Africa

The University of South Africa (UNISA) is the largest university system in South Africa by enrollment. It attracts a third of all higher education students in South Africa. Through various colleges and affiliates, UNISA has over 400,000 students, including international students from 130 countries worldwide, making it one of the world's mega universities and the only such university in Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of the Western Cape Faculty of Dentistry</span>

The Faculty of Dentistry at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) is the largest dental school in Africa. Located in Belville, near Cape Town the UWC Faculty of Dentistry offers the BChD (DDS) Degree, degree in dental hygiene, and post-graduate MChD, MSc(Dent) degrees.

Heinrich Stephen Samuel Willemse is a South African academic, literary critic, activist and author. He currently serves as professor in the Department of Afrikaans at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. He was the former editor-in-chief of the African literary journal Tydskrif vir Letterkunde.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rankings of universities in South Africa</span>

Rankings of universities in South Africa are largely based on international university rankings, since there are no South African rankings as of yet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North-West University</span> Public university in South Africa

The North-West University (NWU) is a public research university located on three campuses in Potchefstroom, Mahikeng and Vanderbijlpark in South Africa. The university came into existence through the merger of the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, a large, historical university dating back to 1869, which also had a branch in Vanderbijlpark, and the University of North-West in 2004. With its merged status, the North-West University became one of the largest universities in South Africa with the third largest student population in the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhodes Must Fall</span> Anti-apartheid protest movement regarding statues at the University of Cape Town in South Africa

Rhodes Must Fall was a protest movement that began on 9 March 2015, originally directed against a statue at the University of Cape Town (UCT) that commemorates Cecil Rhodes. The campaign for the statue's removal received global attention and led to a wider movement to "decolonise" education across South Africa. On 9 April 2015, following a UCT Council vote the previous night, the statue was removed.

Kaaps, also known as Afrikaaps, is a West Germanic African language that evolved in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Its status as a sister language of Afrikaans or a dialect of Afrikaans is unclear. Since the early 2020s there has been a significant increase in the number of works of literature published in Kaaps. Most works in Kaaps come from authors located in the Cape Flats area of Cape Town, South Africa where it is most commonly spoken. Although Kaaps is considered a growing phenomenon, it is more specifically a colloquial dialect of Afrikaans. All other distinct colloquial variations of Afrikaans, including Kaaps, are organically connected to Standard Afrikaans as a widely spoken unitary variety and interact with it.

References

  1. "UWC at a Glance". University of the Western Cape. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
  2. "History". www.uwc.ac.za. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  3. "The road to community radio". Rhodes Journalism Review, September 2004.
  4. "Student protests continue at UWC | IOL News". Archived from the original on 3 February 2020. Archived 24 February 2020 at the Wayback Machine
  5. "Police intervene in UWC campus protest". News24. Archived from the original on 24 February 2020. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  6. "Research Development" Archived 10 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine , University of the Western Cape.
  7. "Top Africa". Ranking Web of World Universities. Archived from the original on 4 October 2009. Retrieved 26 February 2010.
  8. "World University Rankings 2024 (South Africa)". Times Higher Education (THE). 20 October 2024. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
  9. "World University Rankings 2023 (South Africa)". Times Higher Education (THE). 20 October 2023. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
  10. "World University Rankings 2022 (South Africa)". Times Higher Education (THE). 20 October 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
  11. "World University Rankings 2021 (South Africa)". Times Higher Education (THE). 20 October 2021. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
  12. "World University Rankings 2020 (South Africa)". Times Higher Education (THE). 20 October 2020. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
  13. "World University Rankings 2019 (South Africa)". Times Higher Education (THE). 20 October 2019. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
  14. "World University Rankings 2018 (South Africa)". Times Higher Education (THE). 20 October 2018. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
  15. "World University Rankings 2017 (South Africa)". Times Higher Education (THE). 20 October 2017. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
  16. "World University Rankings 2016 (South Africa)". Times Higher Education (THE). 20 October 2016. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
  17. "World University Rankings 2015 (South Africa)". Times Higher Education (THE). 20 October 2015. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
  18. "World University Rankings 2014 (South Africa)". Times Higher Education (THE). 20 October 2014. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
  19. "World University Rankings 2013 (South Africa)". Times Higher Education (THE). 20 October 2013. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
  20. "World University Rankings 2012 (South Africa)". Times Higher Education (THE). 20 October 2012. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
  21. "World University Rankings 2011 (South Africa)". Times Higher Education (THE). 20 October 2011. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
  22. "Profile of Kamanda Cos Bataringaya, Member of Parliament for Bwamba County, Bundibugyo District". Parliament of Uganda. 2011. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  23. "Former dissident, post-1989 politician Battěk dies". Namibian Sun . 5 March 2013. Archived from the original on 4 October 2013. Retrieved 25 March 2013.
  24. Rademeyer, Ronelle (8 October 2021). "Vurige kampvegter vir geregtigheid" [Fiery campaigner for justice]. Republikein (in Afrikaans). p. 5. Archived from the original on 9 October 2021. Retrieved 10 October 2021.

33°56′S18°38′E / 33.933°S 18.633°E / -33.933; 18.633