 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "University of the Western Cape" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(November 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 | |
Other names | Bush, uDubs |
|---|---|
| Motto | Latin:Respice Prospice |
Motto in English | "Look Ahead" |
| Type | Public university |
| Established | 1959; 67 years ago (1959) |
Academic affiliations | ACU,CHEC,HESA,IAU |
| Chancellor | Thabo Makgoba |
| Vice-Chancellor | Robert Balfour |
| Rector | Robert Balfour |
| Students | 23,000+ (2023)[1] |
| Undergraduates | 15,840 |
| Postgraduates | 6,160 |
| Location | Robert Sobukwe Road,Bellville, Western Cape ,South Africa |
| Campus | Urban setting |
| Mascot | Bushie |
| Website | www |
 | |
TheUniversity of the Western Cape (UWC;Afrikaans:Universiteit van Wes-Kaapland) is apublicresearch university inBellville, inCape Town, South Africa. The university was established in 1959 by theSouth African apartheid government as a university forColoured people only. Other universities inCape Town are theUniversity of Cape Town (originally forEnglish-speakingwhites),Cape Peninsula University of Technology, andStellenbosch University (originally forAfrikaans-speaking whites). The establishing of UWC was a direct effect of the Apartheid-eraExtension 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 theUniversity of Zululand and theUniversity of the North, were founded as well. Since well before the end ofapartheid in South Africa in 1994, it has been an integrated andmultiracial institution.
UWC started as a "bush college", a university college without autonomy under the auspices of theUniversity 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 fromStellenbosch University. The language in most lectures wasAfrikaans. 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]
Desmond Tutu - 1987 to 2012
Thabo Makgoba - 2012 to present
N.J Sieberhagen - 1960 to 1973
Wynand Mouton - 1974
Richard Ernest van der Ross - 1975 to 1986
Jakes Gerwel - 1987 to 1994
Cecil Abrahams - 1995 to 2000
Brian O Connell - 2001 to 2014
Tyrone Pretorius - 2015 to 2024
Robert Balfour - 2025 to present
During the first 15 years, the board and staff were primarily whites, supporting theNational Party andapartheid. One of the few exceptions wasAdam Small, head of the philosophy department. Small resigned in 1973 as a consequence of his involvement in theBlack Consciousness Movement.[3] 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.[4] 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 theUniversity of the Western Cape Act.[5]
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, numerous UWC students were involved in the creation ofBush Radio, an anti-apartheid media project which distributed political and cultural radio programming viacassette tape due to the lack of a license to broadcast on a conventional radio platform. By 1993, the station went to air as apirate radio station, and eventually became South Africa's first licensedcommunity radio station.[6]
RectorJakes 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 theOpenCourseWare Consortium (OCWC), and was voted onto the OCWC board in 2007.[citation needed]
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[7] 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.[8]
| Race | Percentage |
|---|---|
| African | 47% |
| Coloured | 44% |
| White | 5% |
| Indian | 3% |
| Other | 2% |
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.[9]
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.[10]
| UWC Times Higher Education Ranking 2016 to 2024 | |
|---|---|
| Year | World Rank |
| 2024 | 601–800 |
| 2023 | 601–800 |
| 2022 | 601–800 |
| 2021 | 601–800 |
| 2020 | 601–800 |
| 2019 | 601–800 |
| 2018 | 601–800 |
| 2017 | 601-800 |
| 2016 | 501-600 |
| [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] | |
TheChildren's Rights Project is a South African organisation. Located in theCommunity Law Centre, University of the Western Cape, its goal is the recognition and protection ofchildren's rights within the framework of the United NationsConvention on the Rights of the Child, theAfrican Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and theConstitution of the Republic of South Africa.
Since 2014, UWC has hosted theDSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security (CoE-FS), and is the first historically disadvantaged institution to host aDSI-NRF Centre of Excellence. The CoE-FS is co-hosted with theUniversity of Pretoria. The CoE-FS undertakes "innovative research and critical enquiry to enable South Africa to tackle the challenges of food security and nutrition". Several UWC-based researchers contribute to the CoE-FS's work, including Professor Julian May (CoE-FS) director and Professor Rina Swart (CoE-FS Nutrition lead).
| Public |
| ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Private |
| ||||||
| Related | |||||||
33°56′S18°38′E / 33.933°S 18.633°E /-33.933; 18.633
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
