The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

research university A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are "the key sites of Knowledge production modes, knowledge production", along with "intergenerational ...

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. Established in 1829 as the

South African College The South African College was an educational institution in Cape Town, South Africa, which developed into the University of Cape Town (UCT) and the South African College Schools (SACS). History The process that would lead to the formation of th ...

, it was granted full

university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

status in 1918, making it the oldest university in

and the oldest university in Sub-Saharan Africa in continuous operation. UCT is organised in 57 departments across six faculties offering

bachelor's A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ( ...

( NQF 7) to

doctoral degrees A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

( NQF 10) solely in the

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

. Home to 30,000 students, it encompasses six campuses in the Capetonian suburbs of

Rondebosch Rondebosch is one of the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town, South Africa. It is primarily a residential suburb, with shopping and business districts as well as the main campus of the University of Cape Town. History Four years after the first Dutch ...

, Hiddingh,

Observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysics, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. Th ...

, Mowbray, and the Waterfront. It is the only African member of the

Global University Leaders Forum The Global University Leaders Forum (GULF) is a group of presidents from the world's top 29 universities, established in 2006 by the World Economic Forum (WEF). It describes itself as a "community" to address educational, scientific and research ...

(GULF) within the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental organization, international advocacy non-governmental organization and think tank, based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German ...

, which is made up of 26 of the world's top universities. Five

alumni Alumni (: alumnus () or alumna ()) are former students or graduates of a school, college, or university. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for groups of women, and alums (: alum) or alumns (: alumn) as gender-neutral alternatives. Th ...

, staff members, and researchers associated with UCT have won the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

. 88 staff members are part of the Academy of Sciences of South Africa.

History

Early history

The University of Cape Town was founded at a meeting in the Groote Kerk in 1829 as the

, a

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

for young men. The college had a small tertiary-education facility, introduced in 1874 that grew substantially after 1880, when the discovery of gold and diamonds in the north – and the resulting demand for skills in mining – gave it the financial boost it needed to grow. The college developed into a fully fledged university during the period 1880 to 1900, thanks to increased funding from private sources and the government. During these years, the college built its first dedicated science laboratories, and started the departments of mineralogy and geology to meet the need for skilled personnel in the country's emerging diamond and gold-mining industries. The UCT crest was designed in 1859 by Charles Davidson Bell, Surveyor-General of the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony (), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope. It existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with three ...

at the time. Bell was an accomplished artist who also designed medals and the triangular Cape stamp. Another key development during this period was the admission of women. In 1886 the professor of chemistry,

Paul Daniel Hahn Paul Daniel Hahn (5 January 1849 – 9 March 1919) was a South African educational chemical analyst and professor of chemistry. He is considered a pioneer in the education of natural sciences in South Africa. Early life and education Hahn was b ...

, convinced the council to admit four women into his chemistry class on a trial basis. Owing to the exceptional standard of work by the women students, the college decided to admit women students permanently in honour of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1887. The years 1902 to 1918 saw the establishment of the Medical School, the introduction of engineering courses and a Department of Education. UCT was formally established as a university in 1918, on the basis of the

Alfred Beit Alfred Beit (15 February 1853 – 16 July 1906) was an Anglo-German gold and diamond magnate in South Africa, and a major donor and profiteer of infrastructure development on the African continent. He also donated much money to university ed ...

bequest and additional substantial gifts from mining magnates Julius Wernher and

Otto Beit Sir Otto John Beit, 1st Baronet, KCMG, FRS (7 December 1865 – 7 December 1930) was a German-born British financier, philanthropist and art connoisseur. Life history and career Beit was born in Hamburg, Germany, the younger brother of Alfr ...

. The new university also attracted substantial support from well-wishers in the

area and, for the first time, a significant state grant. UCT_Upper_Campus_landscape_view

In 1928, the university was able to move the bulk of its facilities to

Groote Schuur Groote Schuur (; ) is an estate in Cape Town, South Africa. In 1657, the estate was owned by the Dutch East India Company which used it partly as a granary. Later, the farm and farmhouse was sold into private hands. Groote Schuur was later acqu ...

on the slopes of Devil's Peak, on land bequeathed to the nation by

Cecil John Rhodes Cecil John Rhodes ( ; 5 July 185326 March 1902) was an English-South African mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. He and his British South Africa Company founded ...

as the site for a national university. UCT celebrated its centenary the following year.

Apartheid era

Apart from establishing itself as a leading research and teaching university in the

decade A decade (from , , ) is a period of 10 years. Decades may describe any 10-year period, such as those of a person's life, or refer to specific groupings of calendar years. Usage Any period of ten years is a "decade". For example, the statement ...

s that followed, UCT earned itself the nickname "Moscow on the Hill" during the period 1960 to 1990 for its sustained opposition to apartheid, particularly in

higher education Tertiary education (higher education, or post-secondary education) is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank defines tertiary education as including universities, colleges, and vocational schools ...

. In 1968 the university withdrew the appointment of a black lecturer, Archie Mafeje, under pressure from the government which had declared it a white educational institution. This led to a nine day protest by hundreds of students; an early example of resistance to apartheid by progressive whites. The university admitted its first small group of black students in the 1920s. The number of black students remained relatively low until the 1980s and 90s, when the institution, reading and welcoming the signs of change in the country, committed itself to a deliberate and planned process of internal transformation. From the 1980s to the early 1990s, the number of black students admitted to the university rose by 35 percent. By 2004, nearly half of UCT's 20,000 students were black and just under half of the student body was female. Today the university boasts having one of the most diverse campuses in

Post-Apartheid era

Rhodes Must Fall Rhodes Must Fall was a protest Social movement, 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 glob ...

(#RhodesMustFall on social media) 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 Cecil John Rhodes ( ; 5 July 185326 March 1902) was an English-South African mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. He and his British South Africa Company founded th ...

. The campaign for the statue's removal received global attention and led to a wider movement to " decolonise" education across

. On 9 April 2015, following a UCT Council vote the previous night, the statue was removed. #

FeesMustFall #FeesMustFall was a student-led protest movement that began in mid-October 2015 in South Africa. The goals of the movement were to stop increases in student fees as well as to increase government funding of universities. Protests started at the ...

was a student protest movement which was arguably indirectly inspired by the RhodesMustFall. It formally began at the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The universit ...

and spread to UCT and

Rhodes University Rhodes University () is a public research university located in Makhanda (formerly 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 prov ...

and then the rest of the South African universities. It called for the abolition of tuition fee increases for the 2016 academic year. Diverse demands arose such as the abolition of fees and decolonisation of higher education which led to substantial changes at South African public universities. At UCT, the Senate began a widespread curriculum reform process and the university began the process of the renaming of buildings on campus (the most notable example was when Jameson Hall was renamed to

Sarah Baartman Sarah Baartman (; 1789 – 29 December 1815), also spelled Sara, sometimes in the diminutive form Saartje (), or Saartjie, and Bartman, Bartmann, was a Khoekhoe woman who was exhibited as a freak show attraction in 19th-century Europe under ...

Hall in 2019). In September 2019, Film and Media studies student Uyinene Mrwetyana went missing. After the community and police began searching, her body was discovered in the Cape Flats area of

and Luyanda Botha was arrested and convicted for her rape and murder. Her death and the rape and death of other women precipitated widespread public outcry that led to a

campus A campus traditionally refers to the land and buildings of a college or university. This will often include libraries, lecture halls, student centers and, for residential universities, residence halls and dining halls. By extension, a corp ...

shutdown and protests on

, at the Parliament precinct in

CBD and at

es around

. Subsequently, President Ramaphosa announced reforms such as harsher punishments for sex offenders and the public disclosure of the National Register for Sex Offenders to stem sexual and physical violence against women and children. Moreover, the Uyinene Mrwetyana Foundation was established and a special fund in her name was created to provide scholarships to female students in the Humanities Faculty. In March 2020, UCT opened the Neuroscience Institute at the

Groote Schuur Hospital Groote Schuur Hospital is a large government-funded teaching hospital situated on the slopes of Devil's Peak (Cape Town), Devil's Peak in the city of Cape Town, South Africa. It was founded in 1938 and is famous for being the institution where ...

in collaboration with the Western Cape Provincial Government, the first dedicated cross- and interdisciplinary centre for the study of and development of treatments for

neurological Neurology (from , "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous system, which comprises the brain, the s ...

and mental disorders in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

Campus

Uct-rag-concert-at-kirstenbosch-gardens-001

The main teaching

, known as Upper Campus, is located on the

Rhodes Rhodes (; ) is the largest of the Dodecanese islands of Greece and is their historical capital; it is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, ninth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Administratively, the island forms a separ ...

Estate on the slopes of Devil's Peak. This campus contains, in a relatively compact site, the faculties of

Science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

Engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

Commerce Commerce is the organized Complex system, system of activities, functions, procedures and institutions that directly or indirectly contribute to the smooth, unhindered large-scale exchange (distribution through Financial transaction, transactiona ...

, and

Humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...

(except for the arts departments), as well as Smuts Hall and Fuller Hall

residences A residence is a place (normally a building) used as a home or dwelling, where people reside. Residence or The Residence may also refer to: * Domicile (law), a legal term for residence * Habitual residence, a civil law term dealing with the s ...

. Upper Campus is centered on Sarah Baartman Hall, the location for graduation and other ceremonial events, as well as many examinations. The original buildings and layout of Upper Campus were designed by JM Solomon and built between 1928 and 1930. Since that time, many more buildings have been added as the university has grown. Upper Campus is also home to the main library, The Chancellor Oppenheimer Library, which holds the majority of the university's 1.3 million volume collection. Contiguous with Upper Campus, but separated from it by university sports fields and the M3 expressway, are the Middle and Lower Campuses. These campuses, which are spread through the suburbs of

, Rosebank and Mowbray, contain the Law Faculty, the South African College of Music, the School of Economics, most of the student residences, most of the university administrative offices, and various sporting facilities. The state of the art artificial grass

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

field has been approved by FIFA for training for

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

teams. The Upper, Middle and Lower Campuses together are often referred to as the "main campus". The Faculty of

Health Sciences The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to health sciences: Health sciences – those sciences that focus on health, or health care, as core parts of their subject matter. Health sciences relate to multiple a ...

is located on the

Medical School A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, professional school, or forms a part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, ...

campus next to the

. The

Fine Arts In European academic traditions, fine art (or, fine arts) is made primarily for aesthetics or creativity, creative expression, distinguishing it from popular art, decorative art or applied art, which also either serve some practical function ...

and

Drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

departments are located on the Hiddingh Campus in central

. The university's original building, now known as the ''

Egyptian Building The Egyptian Building is a historic college building in Richmond, Virginia, completed in 1845. It was the first permanent home of the Medical Department of Hampden-Sydney College. In 1854, they received an independent charter after parting ways w ...

'', on the Hiddingh campus, was built in the

Egyptian Revival Egyptian Revival is an architectural style that uses the motifs and imagery of ancient Egypt. It is attributed generally to the public awareness of ancient Egyptian monuments generated by Napoleon's French campaign in Egypt and Syria, invasion of ...

style. The only other campus built in this style was the

Medical College of Virginia The VCU Medical Center (VCU Health), formerly known as the Medical College of Virginia (MCV), is the medical campus of Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), located in downtown Richmond, Virginia, United States. As MCV, VCU Medical Center merged ...

Richmond, Virginia Richmond ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city (United States), independent city since 1871. ...

in the United States. The UCT Graduate School of Business is located on the Breakwater Lodge Campus at the

Victoria & Alfred Waterfront The V&A Waterfront, often referred to as The Waterfront and The V&A, is a mixed-use suburb in Cape Town, South Africa, featuring upmarket residential apartments, a major shopping mall, a marina, and multiple large hotels. The Waterfront sit ...

. The Baxter Theatre Centre, located on the Lower Campus, is part of the University of Cape Town; it is also the second largest performing arts complex in

, after the

Artscape Theatre Centre Artscape Theatre Centre (formerly Nico Malan Theatre Centre) is the main performing arts centre in Cape Town, South Africa. It was opened in 1971 and is located on reclaimed land in the Foreshore area. The inaugural performance was scheduled to ...

. It has three venues: *the 665-seat Main

Theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

*the 638-seat Concert Hall, with a

Von Beckerath The term () is used in German surnames either as a nobiliary particle indicating a noble patrilineality, or as a simple preposition used by commoners that means or . Nobility directories like the often abbreviate the noble term to ''v.'' I ...

organ *the 172-seat Golden Arrow Studio For his contribution of the tract of land which the campus was founded on, a bronze statue of Cecil Rhodes was erected in 1934 on the Upper Campus, overlooking the university's rugby fields. The statue was removed in April 2015 following pressure from student groups due to its representation of

's colonialist apartheid past and the university's inadequate representation of black students, faculty, and staff. The upper campus was affected by the Table Mountain fire in April 2021; the

Jagger Library The Jagger Library (also known as the Jagger Reading Room, previously known as the J. W. Jagger Linear Library) was the main Reference library, reading room of the University of Cape Town Libraries. The building was constructed in the 1930s, name ...

building, which housed rare books and documents including a large African Studies collection, was gutted. UCT cropped panorama

Residential halls

The university has 19 student residences (or "res" as known colloquially), offering both single-gender and mixed-gender housing. The Department of Student Housing oversees the residence system College House is the oldest university residence in

, having been established in 1887. UCT's residence system is composed of three tiers. Students living in residence are placed in a tier according to the length of time that they have been in the residence system, studying in the university and service or part-time employment in a residence. As a student progresses through their academic journey they are moved into a higher tier.

Postgraduate Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor' ...

students are usually housed in the third-tier residences unless employed in lower-tier residences. First-tier residences: * Avenue Road Residence * Baxter Hall * Clarinus Village * College House * Dullah Omar Hall * Fuller Hall * Glendover Residence * Graça Machel Hall * Kilindini * Kopano Residence * Leo Marquard Hall * Rochester House * Smuts Hall * Tugwell Hall * University House * Varietas Second-tier residences: * Forest Hill * Groote Schuur Flats * Groote Schuur Residence * Liesbeeck Gardens * Medical Residence * Obz Square * The Woolsack Third-tier residences: * 1 Woodbine Road * 8 Avenue Road * Amalinda * Dullah Omar Hall * Edwin Hart Annex * F Block (Forest Hill) * Harold Cressy Hall * Inglewood * JP Duminy Court * Linkoping * North Grange * Rondeberg * TB Davie Court File:UCT Cape Town.jpg, Smuts Hall, built in 1928 on the Upper Campus File:Tugwell Hall, Cape Town (South Africa).jpg, Tugwell Hall, built in 1974 on the Lower Campus

Organisation

Administration and governance

The University of Cape Town was originally incorporated as a public university by a private act of Parliament, the University of Cape Town Act, 1916 (No. 14 of 1916) in 1918. At present it is incorporated and structured by an institutional statute issued under the provisions of the Higher Education Act, 1997. The titular head of the university is the

chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

; this is a ceremonial position without executive power. The primary role of the chancellor is to confer degrees on behalf of the university, and to represent the university to the rest of the world. The current Chancellor is fashion entrepreneur and

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

Precious Moloi-Motsepe Precious Moloi-Motsepe (born 2 August 1962) is a South African philanthropist and fashion entrepreneur. One of the richest women in South Africa, she started her career as a medical practitioner, specializing in children and women's health. In S ...

who was elected in November 2019 and assumed the role on 1 January 2020 after the expiration of Ms

Graça Machel Graça Machel (; ; born 17 October 1945) is a Mozambique, Mozambican politician and humanitarian. Machel is an international advocate for women's and children's rights and was made an honorary Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire ...

's second consecutive 10-year term. The University Council is the highest ranked decision-making and appointative structure in the university. With wide-ranging powers of governance over areas such as the strategy, well-being and mission of the university, it is directly accountable to the Government of the Republic through the Minister of Higher Education, currently Nobuhle Nkabane for matters relating to the university. It is composed of 30 broad stakeholder representatives such as students, academics, staff and appointees of the

City of Cape Town The City of Cape Town (; ) is a Metropolitan municipality (South Africa), metropolitan municipality that forms the metropolitan municipality (South Africa), local government of Cape Town and surrounding areas. As of 2022 it has a population of ...

, Convocation, Premier of the Western Cape and the Minister of Higher Education among others, and the presiding officer of the council, the chair, is currently Mr Norman Arendse (SC). The Registrar, who acts as the secretary of the Council and Senate, oversees academic registration and legal matters, and administers the Convocation, is currently Royston Pillay. The Convocation, composed of

, the

Vice Chancellor A vice-chancellor (commonly called a VC) serves as the chief executive of a university in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Kenya, other Commonwealth countr ...

, Deputy Vice Chancellors, academic staff, emeritus professors and emeritus associate professors, is a statutory body administered by the Office of the Registrar, which provides a platform for former members of the university to participate and engage with matters affecting the university. Helmed by the President of the Convocation, currently Mr Kassi Carl Manlan, it can make recommendations and pass non-binding resolutions in its Annual General Meetings. The Leadership Lekgotla is a coordinating and decision-making structure composed of senior executives of the university who oversee the day-to-day running of the university. It contrasts with the University Council which arises from the University Statute and exercises supreme governance over the university. The Leadership Lekgotla's members are senior executives who oversee different areas of the university's operations and policies. The most senior executive is the

(ranked below the Chancellor in the ceremonial protocol and order of precedence of the university) is the de facto head and chief executive of the university, (currently held by Mosa Moshabela), who is accountable to the council. Below the Vice Chancellor are the Deputy Vice Chancellors of Transformation (currently Professor Elelwani Ramugondo), of Research and Internationalisation (currently Susanne Harris) and of Teaching and Learning (currently Professor Harsha Kathard, acting). The Chief Operations Officer, currently Reno Morar, brings together and oversees the functional, support and technical areas of the university's operations.

Academic divisions

The university is composed of six Faculties (Commerce, Engineering and the Built Environment, Health Sciences, Law, Sciences and Humanities) which together comprise 57 departments. Faculties are helmed by a Dean and their administrative and operational matters are administered by a Director. The

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

has delegated substantial powers to the faculties in academic matters over their internal protocol and management such as on matters concerning class timetables, admission requirements, academic exclusion, examinations, research projects and so on. Faculties vary substantially in student size and in buildings occupied, with the Commerce faculty having the highest student population and the law faculty having the lowest while the Humanities faculty spans the most buildings followed by the Faculty of

with the Commerce and Law faculties having (by far) the lowest physical footprint. Notwithstanding interdisciplinary research units and centers, additional academic structures exist that eschew the faculty-based organisational structure. The multidisciplinary Center for Higher Education Development ranks on an equal level as the faculties and the UCT Graduate School of Business maintains substantial latitude over its internal affairs despite being nominally part of the Faculty of Commerce. The interdisciplinary School of Information Technology, comprising the Departments of Information Systems and of

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

in the Commerce and Science faculties is neither a faculty nor a department but a coordinating mechanism to promote IT education and research. The departments of the faculties are listed as follows: Department-of-Botany door

Faculty of Commerce * College of

Accounting Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the process of recording and processing information about economic entity, economic entities, such as businesses and corporations. Accounting measures the results of an organization's economic activit ...

* School of

Economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

(jointly established with Faculty of Humanities) * Department of Finance and Tax * Department of Information Systems * The Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance * School of Management Studies * Education Development Unit * Graduate School of Business Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment * Department of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics * Department of Chemical Engineering * Department of Civil Engineering * Department of Construction Economics and Management * Department of Electrical Engineering * Department of Mechanical Engineering Faculty of Health Sciences * Department of Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine * Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences * Department of Health Sciences Education * Department of Human Biology * Department of Integrative Biomedical Sciences * Department of Medicine * Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology * Department of Paediatrics and Child Health * Department of Pathology * Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health * Department of Public Health and Family Medicine * Department of Radiation Medicine * Department of Surgery SA College of Music

Faculty of Humanities * African Feminist Studies * Anthropology * African Studies and Linguistics * Centre for Film and Media Studies * Education Development Unit * English Literary Studies * Historical Studies * Knowledge and Information Stewardship *

Michaelis School of Fine Art The Michaelis School of Fine Art is a public university, public tertiary education, tertiary art school in the Cape Town suburb of Gardens, Cape Town, Gardens. It was founded in 1925 and is named after its benefactor, Max Michaelis. It is the Fin ...

* Department of Philosophy * Department of Political Studies * School of Education * Department of Psychology * School of Languages and Literatures * Department of Social Work & Social Development * Department of Sociology * South African College of Music * Department for the Study of Religions * Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies UCT Middle Campus - The Japonica Walk 01

UCT Middle Campus - The Japonica Walk 01

Faculty of Law A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In North America, academic divisions are sometimes titled colleges, sc ...

* Department of

Commercial Law Commercial law (or business law), which is also known by other names such as mercantile law or trade law depending on jurisdiction; is the body of law that applies to the rights, relations, and conduct of Legal person, persons and organizations ...

* Department of

Private Law Private law is that part of a legal system that governs interactions between individual persons. It is distinguished from public law, which deals with relationships between both natural and artificial persons (i.e., organizations) and the st ...

* Department of Public Law Faculty of Science * Department of Archaeology * Department of Astronomy * Department of Biological Sciences * Department of Chemistry * Department of Computer Science * Department of Environmental and Geographical Science * Department of Geological Sciences * Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics * Department of Molecular and Cell Biology * Department of Oceanography * Department of Physics * Department of Statistical Sciences

Funding

The university's endowment (the financial capital and investment funds on which it can draw to carry out its work) is deposited with the UCT Foundation (a legally independent nonprofit organisation) and it is managed by the Investment Office. Through the Distinguishing UCT fundraising campaign, the university is trying to raise its endowment. As of 2019, its designated endowment stands at R2.5 billion and its undesignated endowment stands at R676 million with R133 million raised for infrastructure projects (bringing the total undesignated endowment to R809 million which the university aims to increase to R1 billion). There have been several campaigns at the university to divest its endowment. Fossil Free UCT was formally established in 2015 as a campaign by environmental activism lobbying groups and student organisations, most notably the Green Campus Initiative compel UCT to divest from fossil fuel companies which resulted in a non-binding resolution passed by UCT's Convocation in 2017 to support the divestment. Student lobby groups, most notably the Palestinian Solidarity Front and the SRC called on the university's management to divest from Israeli companies and organisations working in the Palestinian Occupied Territories (among other demands), which, in the end, the university refused to do. The university's income comes from a combination of government grants, tuition fees, donations, investment and research income. In the 2017–2018 financial year, the university received R1.415 billion in state subsidies, R1.428 billion in tuition fees and R539 million in other income. R1.2 billion was committed to student financial aid for both undergraduate and postgraduate students from the university, the government through the NSFAS scheme and the university's partners and donors.

Students and staff

, there were 27,907 students; 25% of whom were black South African, 22% were white South African, 18% identified as another race, 15% were

international student International students or exchange students, also known as foreign students, are students who undertake all or part of their secondary or tertiary education in a country other than their own. In 2022, there were over 6.9 million international ...

s. In 2016 there were 29,074 students enrolled (18,421 undergraduates and 10,653 postgraduates) and 4,542 staff were employed (1,179 academic and 3,363 professional, administrative, support and service staff). The UCT Employment Equity Plan April (2010 to 2015) indicated moderate but consistent changes in the demographic makeup of the staff body. The five-year plan specified specific targets ranging from between about 5% to 10% adjustments in the representation of SA black staff. According to the plan the staff makeup would have changed by 2015 by achieving either parity or more SA black staff than SA white in all categories other than senior lecturer and professor positions. UCT spokesperson Elijah Moholola noted that, in 2017, UCT employed 45 white professors, 38 black African,

Cape Coloured Cape Coloureds () are a South African group of Coloured people who are from the Cape region in South Africa which consists of the Western Cape, Northern Cape and the Eastern Cape. Their ancestry comes from the interracial mixing between th ...

Indian South African Indian South Africans are South Africans who descend from indentured labourers and free migrants who arrived from British India during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The majority live in and around the city of Durban, making it one of the la ...

professors, 67 foreign national professors and 7 who did not disclose their race.

Student enrolment 2009–2013

Student enrolment by population group 2009–2013, showing percentage growth on base:

Student life

UCT had 36 different sports clubs in 2003, including

team sport A team sport is a type of sport where the fundamental nature of the game or sport requires the participation of multiple individuals working together as a team, and it is inherently impossible or highly impractical to execute the sport as a s ...

individual sport An individual sport or one on one sport is a sport in which participants compete as individuals. However, team competitions within individual sports also occur, such as the Davis Cup and the Billie Jean King Cup. Overview Examples * Athletic ...

extreme sport Action sports, adventure sports or extreme sports are physical activity, activities perceived as involving a high degree of risk of injury or death. These activities often involve speed, height, a high level of physical exertion and highly speci ...

s and

martial arts Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defence; military and law enforcement applications; combat sport, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; ...

. The university's sports teams, in particular the

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

team, are known as the " Ikey Tigers" or the "Ikeys". The "Ikey" nickname originated in the 1910s as an

antisemitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

epithet applied to UCT students by the students of

Stellenbosch University Stellenbosch University (SU) (, ) 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-Sahara ...

, because of the supposed large number of Jewish students at UCT. Stellenbosch is UCT's traditional rugby opponent; an annual "Intervarsity" match is played between the two universities. The University of Cape Town Football Club also known as the "Ikeys Warriors" is the main team for association football (soccer), representing the university at tournaments such as Varsity Football. Uct-rag-concert-at-kirstenbosch-gardens-032

Uct-rag-concert-at-kirstenbosch-gardens-032

As of 2007 there were more than 80 student societies at UCT, falling into five categories: * Academic societies for those interested in a particular field of study or studying a particular topic: The most prominent of these include the History and Current Affairs Society (HCA), the Space and Astronomy Society (SpaceSoc, also a

SEDS Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) is a non-profit international student organization whose purpose is to drive space advocacy of space exploration and development through educational and engineering projects. Hist ...

South Africa chapter), the United Nations Association of South Africa (UNASA), and the Students for Law and Social Justice (SLSJ). * Political societies, including branches of the youth wings of national political parties such as the

South African Students Congress The South African Students Congress (SASCO) is a South African student organisation currently led by Alungile Kamtshe as the organization's president. SASCO was founded in September 1991 at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, through t ...

(SASCO), the Democratic Alliance Students Organisation (DASO), and the

African National Congress Youth League The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) is the youth wing of the African National Congress (ANC). As set out in its constitution, the ANC Youth League is led by a National Executive Committee (NEC) and a National Working Committee (N ...

. * Religious societies, some of which are associated with religious denominations or local places of worship. * National/cultural societies for students from particular countries or particular ethnic backgrounds. * Special interest societies (such as RainbowUCT, the university's

LGBTI Intersex people are born with sex characteristics (such as genitals, gonads, and chromosome patterns) that "do not fit the typical definitions for male or female bodies". They are substantially more likely to identify as lesbian, gay, bisexua ...

society, UCT Mountain & Ski Club, UCT Ballroom and Latin dancing) for those interested in various activities or issues. In addition to the plethora of student societies, there are several student organisations dedicated to the development of communities surrounding the university in the Cape Metropolitan Area. Some of the biggest include: SHAWCO, Ubunye and RAG. Recently, several students movements have developed, such as the Green Campus Initiative.

Rankings

The university received a rank of 198 in the 2019

QS World University Rankings The ''QS World University Rankings'' is a portfolio of comparative college and university rankings compiled by Quacquarelli Symonds, a higher education analytics firm. Its first and earliest edition was published in collaboration with '' Times ...

, a rank of 156 in the 2019

Times Higher Education World University Rankings The ''Times Higher Education World University Rankings'', often referred to as the THE Rankings, is the annual publication of university rankings by the ''Times Higher Education'' magazine. The publisher had collaborated with Quacquarelli Symon ...

, and a rank of 201–300 in the Shanghai

Academic Ranking of World Universities The ''Academic Ranking of World Universities'' (''ARWU''), also known as the Shanghai Ranking, is one of the annual publications of world university rankings. The league table was originally compiled and issued by Shanghai Jiao Tong Universi ...

. The faculty of Commerce as well as the faculty of Law and Medicine have appeared in the top 100 faculties internationally. The law faculty achieved a global rank of 40 in the 2014 QS World University Rankings by Subject. Although the university remains the highest ranking in

as of 2022 its ranking has been declining since 2015. University of Cape Town World Ranking

Affiliations

UCT is a member of the

Worldwide Universities Network The Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) is a non-profit consortium of 24 research-intensive universities founded in 2000. It provides financial and infrastructural support to member universities to support international research collaboration. ...

(WUN), the

Association of African Universities The Association of African Universities (AAU) (, ) is a university association of African universities based in Accra, Ghana. With member institutions all around Africa, AAU provides a forum for cooperation and exchange of information on higher ...

, the

Association of Commonwealth Universities The Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) is a charitable organization that was established in 1913, and has over 400 member institutions in over 40 countries across the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth.Cape Higher Education Consortium, Higher Education South Africa, the

International Alliance of Research Universities The International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU) was launched on 14 January 2006 as a co-operative network of 10 leading, international research-intensive universities who share similar visions for higher education, in particular the edu ...

(IARU), the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) and the

International Association of Universities The International Association of Universities (IAU) is a membership-led non-governmental organization working in the field of global higher education. It has more than 600 members in over 130 countries, including institutions, organizations, aff ...

. The Faculty of Law is a member of the

Law Schools Global League The Law Schools Global League or LSGL was instituted in 2012 by a selected number of globally leading law schools. It has the primary aim of globally promoting and fostering scholastic research on law and legal education as well as encouraging col ...

(LSGL).

Notable alumni and staff

Five

of the University of Cape Town have been awarded Nobel Prizes:

Ralph Bunche Ralph Johnson Bunche ( ; August 7, 1904 – December 9, 1971) was an American political scientist, diplomat, and leading actor in the mid-20th-century decolonization process and US civil rights movement, who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Priz ...

, American political scientist and diplomat awarded the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...

in 1950 for his role in the

1949 Armistice Agreements The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt,Allan McLeod Cormack,

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

awarded the

Nobel Prize in Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine () is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute, Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single ...

(1979) for his work on X-ray computed tomography, Max Theiler,

virologist Virology is the scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host cells for reproduction, the ...

awarded the

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine () is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, acco ...

in 1951 for developing a vaccine against yellow fever, Sir

Aaron Klug Sir Aaron Klug (11 August 1926 – 20 November 2018) was a British biophysicist and chemist. He was a winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his development of crystallographic electron microscopy and his structural elucidation of biol ...

, chemist and biophysicist awarded the

Nobel Prize in Chemistry The Nobel Prize in Chemistry () is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outst ...

(1982) for his development of crystallographic electron microscopy and his structural elucidation of biologically important nucleic acid-protein complexes and Professor Emeritus

J. M. Coetzee John Maxwell Coetzee Order of Australia, AC Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, FRSL Order of Mapungubwe, OMG (born 9 February 1940) is a South African and Australian novelist, essayist, linguist, and translator. The recipient of the 2003 ...

(

Literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

, 2003). UCT

have gone on to achieve positions in academica, politics and other fields as follows. According to a non-peer reviewed study conducted by the

Mail & Guardian The ''Mail & Guardian'', formerly the ''Weekly Mail'', is a South African weekly newspaper and website, published by M&G Media in Johannesburg, South Africa. It focuses on political analysis, investigative reporting, Southern African news, loca ...

in 2018, 6% of members of the

Parliament of South Africa The Parliament of the Republic of South Africa is South Africa's legislature. It is located in Cape Town; the country's legislative capital city, capital. Under the present Constitution of South Africa, the bicameralism, bicameral Parliamen ...

obtained a degree from UCT (the study had a sample of 247 out of 449 MPs). Ministers of the

Cabinet of South Africa The Cabinet of South Africa is the most senior level of the executive branch of the Government of South Africa. It is made up of the president, the deputy president, and the ministers. Overview The cabinet of South Africa consists of the Presi ...

, Naledi Pandor and

Ebrahim Patel Ebrahim Patel (born 10 January 1962) is a South African politician and former trade unionist who represents the African National Congress. He served as the Minister of Trade and Industry (South Africa), Minister of Trade, Industry and Competitio ...

, former Vice President of the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

and former Vice Chancellor of UCT,

Mamphela Ramphele Mamphela Aletta Ramphele (; born 28 December 1947) is a South African politician, anti-apartheid activist, medical doctor and businesswoman. She was a partner of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko, with whom she had two children. She is a form ...

, South African

surgeon In medicine, a surgeon is a medical doctor who performs surgery. Even though there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon is a licensed physician and received the same medical training as physicians before spec ...

Christiaan Barnard Christiaan Neethling Barnard (8November 19222September 2001) was a South African cardiac surgeon who performed the world's first human-to-human heart transplant operation. On 3 December 1967, Barnard transplanted the heart of accident victim ...

, South African writer

Breyten Breytenbach Breyten Breytenbach (; 16 September 193924 November 2024) was a South African writer, poet, and painter. He became internationally well-known as a dissident poet and vocal critic of South Africa under apartheid, and as a political prisoner of ...

, South African entrepreneur and inventor behind

Ubuntu Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed primarily of free and open-source software. Developed by the British company Canonical (company), Canonical and a community of contributors under a Meritocracy, meritocratic gover ...

Mark Shuttleworth Mark Richard Shuttleworth (born 18 September 1973) is a South African and British entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu Linux operating system. In 2002, Shuttleworth became the first African to travel to spa ...

, South African activist and judge

Albie Sachs Albert "Albie" Louis Sachs (born 30 January 1935) is a South African lawyer, activist, writer, and former judge appointed to the first Constitutional Court of South Africa by Nelson Mandela. Early life and education Albie Sachs was born in ...

, former member of the South African music band

Freshlyground Freshlyground is an Afro-fusion pop band formed in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2002. Freshlyground is best known for writing, performing and playing the instrumentals of the afrofusion and soca single "''Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)''" a ...

, Zolani Mahola, South African cartoonist Zapiro and former Speaker of the

National Assembly of South Africa The National Assembly is the directly elected house of the Parliament of South Africa, located in Cape Town, Western Cape. It consists of four hundred members who are elected every five years using a party-list proportional representation sy ...

Baleka Mbete Baleka Mbete (born 24 September 1949) is a South African politician who was the Deputy President of South Africa from September 2008 to May 2009. She was also the Speaker of the National Assembly for two non-consecutive terms from 2004 to 2008 ...

are among the alumni of the university. Kindly refer to

List of Notable Alumni of the University of Cape Town A list is a Set (mathematics), set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of t ...

for further information on notable UCT alumni. The

National Research Foundation of South Africa South Africa’s National Research Foundation (NRF) is the intermediary agency between the policies and strategies of the Government of South Africa and South Africa's research institutions. History It was established on 1 April 1999 as an ...

rates researchers and academics according to the quality of their research output in four categories. , 35 staff are A-rated, that being they are internationally recognised leaders in their fields. These are 30% of the A-rated researchers recognised by the NRF, making UCT, by far, the university with the highest number of such researchers. 6 researchers are recognised as P-rated, that being they have potential to become leaders in their fields. , 15% of South Africa's total NRF-rated researchers (about 524) are employed or associated with UCT. For a comprehensive and up-to-date list of B, Y and C-rated researchers, se
this site
, 19% of South African Research Chairs (about 42 academics) are held by UCT employed or associated researchers. 88 members of faculty are members of the Academy of Sciences of South Africa. Notable staff members include Minister of Trade and Industry,

Minister of International Relations and Cooperation The minister of international relations and cooperation is the foreign minister of the South African government, with political responsibility for South Africa's foreign relations and the Department of International Relations and Cooperation. ...

Naledi Pandor Grace Naledi Mandisa Pandor (née Matthews; born 7 December 1953) is a South African politician, educator and academic who served as the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation from 2019 until 2024. She also served as a Parliament o ...

, former Premier of the Western Cape,

Helen Zille Otta Helene Maree (''née'' Zille ; born 9 March 1951), known as Helen Zille, is a South African politician. She has served as the Chairperson of the Federal Council of the Democratic Alliance since 20 October 2019. From 2009 until 2019, she w ...

and George Ellis, collaborator with

Stephen Hawking Stephen William Hawking (8January 194214March 2018) was an English theoretical physics, theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author who was director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge. Between ...

and winner of the 2004

Templeton Prize The Templeton Prize is an annual award granted to a living person, in the estimation of the judges, "whose exemplary achievements advance Sir John Templeton's philanthropic vision: harnessing the power of the sciences to explore the deepest ques ...

, was a professor of

applied mathematics Applied mathematics is the application of mathematics, mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and Industrial sector, industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a ...

in the Faculty of Sciences. For a larger albeit inexhaustive list of former and current notable UCT faculty and staff, see the

List of University of Cape Town faculty This list of University of Cape Town faculty includes current, emeritus, former, and deceased professors, lecturers, and researchers. Faculty members who have become Institute Professors, or have earned other significant awards and made signific ...

. Jerry Ikechukwu Igwilo impact of information and communication technology adoption on stock market development in africa.

Notable research

* The Department of

Mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

and

Applied Mathematics Applied mathematics is the application of mathematics, mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and Industrial sector, industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a ...

is an international centre for research in the fields of

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...

and

topology Topology (from the Greek language, Greek words , and ) is the branch of mathematics concerned with the properties of a Mathematical object, geometric object that are preserved under Continuous function, continuous Deformation theory, deformat ...

. * The Centre for Rhetoric Studies, the only one of its kind on the

African Continent Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

(director:

Philippe-Joseph Salazar Philippe-Joseph Salazar (; born 10 February 1955) is a French rhetorician and philosopher, Early life Salazar was born on 10 February 1955 in Casablanca, then part of French Morocco. Salazar attended the Lycée Louis-le-Grand secondary-scho ...

). * The Department of

Physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

is home to the UCT-

CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in Meyrin, western suburb of Gene ...

research centre, which is partially responsible for the

software design Software design is the process of conceptualizing how a software system will work before it is implemented or modified. Software design also refers to the direct result of the design process the concepts of how the software will work which co ...

of the High Level Trigger component of the

ALICE Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...

experiment at the

Large Hadron Collider The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It was built by the CERN, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) between 1998 and 2008, in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists, ...

, as well as other activities related to ALICE. * The Department of

Electrical Engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

is involved in the development of technology for the Karoo Array Telescope (KAT). KAT is a precursor to the

Square Kilometer Array The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is an intergovernmental international radio telescope project being built in Australia (low-frequency) and South Africa (mid-frequency). The combining infrastructure, the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SK ...

, a proposed International project to build the world's largest radio telescope by 2020. Research groups in RF design and

digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Businesses *Digital bank, a form of financial institution *Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) or Digital, a computer company *Digital Research (DR or DRI), a software ...

design contribute to the RF front-end and digital back-end of the KAT project. * The Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (IIDMM) is engaged in research on candidate

tuberculosis vaccines Tuberculosis (TB) vaccines are vaccinations intended for the prevention of tuberculosis. Immunotherapy as a defence against TB was first proposed in 1890 by Robert Koch. As of 2021, the only effective tuberculosis vaccine in common use is the ...

, and is developing candidate HIV vaccines matched to the South African epidemic. * The OpenUCT Initiative is funded by the

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, commonly known as the Mellon Foundation, is a New York City-based private foundation with wealth accumulated by Andrew Mellon of the Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the product of the 1969 merger ...

and works to make UCT's research, teaching and learning materials openly available online. Major research projects include th
African Climate Development Initiative
(ACDI) pilot curation project
Digital Scholarship in Emerging Knowledge Domains
an
Open Data in the Governance of South African Higher Education
an
Scholarly Communication in Africa
(SCAP) * The Department of

Archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

has found some of the oldest evidence of art and abstract thought in the world. Specifically, engrained ostrich eggshell water containers dated to 60,000 years ago *The African Centre for Cities is one of the few research organisations focusing on

urbanism Urbanism is the study of how inhabitants of urban areas, such as towns and cities, interact with the built environment. It is a direct component of disciplines such as urban planning, a profession focusing on the design and management of urban ...

. *On 21 September 2020 the new Khoi and San Centre was launched, with an

undergraduate degree An undergraduate degree (also called first degree or simply degree) is a colloquial term for an academic degree earned by a person who has completed undergraduate courses. In the United States, it is usually offered at an institution of higher ed ...

programme planned to be rolled out in coming years. The centre will support and consolidate this collaborative work on research commissions on

language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...

(including

Khoekhoegowab Khoekhoe or Khoikhoi ( ; , ), also known by the ethnic terms Nama ( ; ''Namagowab''), Damara (''ǂNūkhoegowab''), or Nama/Damara and formerly as Hottentot, is the most widespread of the non- Bantu languages of Southern Africa that make heavy ...

), sacred human remains, land and gender.

Controversies

The "Mafeje Affair"

University of Cape Town Council's decision to rescind Archie Mafeje's (black) offer for a senior lecturer position due to pressure from the Apartheid government angered students and led to protests on 15 August 1968 followed by a nine days

sit-in A sit-in or sit-down is a form of direct action that involves one or more people occupying an area for a protest, often to promote political, social, or economic change. The protestors gather conspicuously in a space or building, refusing to mo ...

at UCT administration building. Protesters faced intimidation from the government, anti-protestors and fellow

Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...

students from other universities. The police swiftly squashed support for the sit-in. In the aftermath, Mafeje left the country and did not return until 2000.

Rhodes Must Fall

A debate at UCT over the removal of a statue of

spawned

movement. The

movement, which began at Wits and spread to UCT, was inspired by the Rhodes Must Fall protests.

Destruction and censorship of art

Since the removal of the Rhodes statue, other art has been removed or destroyed. FeesMustFall students burned 23 of the university's historical paintings in February 2016. According to GroundUp, art experts connected to the university are concerned about intolerance towards art at the institution, as UCT has removed and censored 75 further "vulnerable" art which it claims are offensive to students."Human Rights investigates the removal of artworks from UCT"
,

SABC The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the public broadcaster in South Africa, and provides 19 radio stations (Amplitude modulation, AM/Frequency modulation, FM) as well as 6 television broadcasts and 3 OTT Services to the general ...

Digital News, 5 May 2017 An Artworks Task Team was set up in September 2015 to assess art at the university "with a view to transformation and inclusivity", and went about finding "artworks on campus that may be seen to recognize or celebrate colonial oppressors and/or which may be offensive or controversial", and specifically artworks deemed to be "offensive" in their depiction of black people. Both Stanley Pinker's ''Decline and Fall'', which makes ironic use of colonial iconology, and

's ''Hovering Dog'', which shows a black person wearing a white mask and a white person wearing a black mask, were removed; and

Diane Victor Diane Victor, (born 1964, Witbank, South Africa) is a South African artist and print maker, known for her satirical and social commentary of contemporary South African politics. Biography Victor was born in Witbank, South Africa. She received ...

's ''Pasiphaë'', which depicts black farmers with allusions to Greek mythology, was covered by a wooden panel. In response, Breyten Breytenbach remarked that UCT were making fools of themselves, while Diane Victor thought UCT's actions were "slightly comical" and her artwork was being understood on a "simplistic level". Jacques Rousseau, then chair of the Academic Freedom Committee, told GroundUp: "There are a number of artworks in UCT's collection that could legitimately be regarded as problematic. Even so, any piece of art is potentially offensive to someone, and the very point of art is to provoke reflection and sometimes discomfort." The Academic Freedom Committee noted with "grave concern recent instances of threats to

academic freedom Academic freedom is the right of a teacher to instruct and the right of a student to learn in an academic setting unhampered by outside interference. It may also include the right of academics to engage in social and political criticism. Academic ...

". The

South African Human Rights Commission The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) was inaugurated in October 1995 as an independent chapter nine institution. It draws its mandate from the South African Constitution by way of the Human Rights Commission Act of 1994. Commissio ...

was investigating the matter as of May 2017, in order to determine whether the university was infringing on the constitutional right to freedom of expression, in particular the right to artistic creativity.

Popular culture

The university was the shooting location of the 2019 film '' Critters Attack!'' where it was called Leroy College and the 2008 film '' Disgrace''. The university was the shooting location of

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

movies ''

The Kissing Booth ''The Kissing Booth'' is a 2018 American teen romantic comedy film written and directed by Vince Marcello, based on the 2012 novel of the same name by Beth Reekles. It stars Joey King, Jacob Elordi, and Joel Courtney. The film follows Elle (K ...

'' and ''

The Kissing Booth 2 ''The Kissing Booth 2'' is a 2020 American Teen film, teen romantic comedy film directed by Vince Marcello and written by Marcello and Jay Arnold. As a direct sequel to the 2018 film ''The Kissing Booth'' and the second installment in the The Ki ...

'' and the 2020 Netflix series '' Blood & Water''. The Upper Campus residence served as the grounds and building for the show's fictional Parkhurst College.

Gallery

File:University of Cape Town - panoramio.jpg, Memorial Plaza on Upper Campus viewed from the columns of the Sarah Baartman Hall File:University of Cape Town - panoramio (3).jpg, The Oracle Fountain next to the Department of Mathematics Building; inspired by the I Ching trigrams on the

Taoist Taoism or Daoism (, ) is a diverse philosophical and religious tradition indigenous to China, emphasizing harmony with the Tao ( zh, p=dào, w=tao4). With a range of meaning in Chinese philosophy, translations of Tao include 'way', 'road', ...

sun disc File:Fuller Hall, University of Cape Town.jpg, Fuller Hall, a student residence on Upper Campus built in 1928 File:UCT rugby fields.jpg, The rugby fields that separate the Upper Campus and Middle Campus File:Cape Town M3 passing UCT.jpg, The M3 highway that separates the Upper Campus and Middle Campus; a tunnel beneath the highway connects the two campuses. File:UCT Middle Campus - The Japonica Walk 02.JPG, The Japonica Walk, a footpath connecting the Upper, Middle and Lower Campuses; it is lined with various flora, including japonica flowers and oak trees. File:Devil's Peak seen up Japonica Walk.jpg, The Japonica Walk, looking towards the Summer House Pavilion File:The Summer House, UCT Middle Campus.jpg, The Summer House Pavilion, built , is one of the oldest buildings in South Africa. File:Woolsack.jpg, The Woolsack Building; it was a refuge for writers and artists, and also where

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much ...

spent his summers between 1900 and 1908. File:UCT_Jammie_steps.jpg, The famous steps on Upper Campus leading up to the Sarah Baartman Hall, nicknamed the "Jammie steps" File:Kaapstad27.JPG, The Jagger Library, housing rare books and special collections File:Kaapstad33.JPG, View from the Chancellor Oppenheimer Library File:FitzPatrick Institute 1.jpg, Entrance to the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology File:Mowbray 3 Avenue Road.JPG, Student Housing and Residence Life Building File:Breakwater Prison.jpg, The Breakwater Lodge, which houses the UCT Graduate School of Business File:UCT Leslie Social Science classroom.JPG, A lecture theatre in the Leslie Social Science Building (Faculty of Humanities)

References

External links

*
Statute of the University of Cape Town
Government Notice No. 1199, 20 September 2002.
Southern African University

UCT OpenContent - Open Educational Resource website
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University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, 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 univer ...

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