The University of Cape Town is a major tertiary education institution in Cape Town, South Africa. It is the oldest tertiary education institution in South Africa.

The main campus of UCT is on Rhodes Estate, on the slopes of Devil's Peak, above the suburb of Rondebosch, and below the Rhodes Memorial . The medical campus is nearby, at Groote Schuur Hospital.

Other Universities in the Western Cape are the Stellenbosch University and the University of the Western Cape .

Size

In 2003, 19 978 students were enrolled, of which 51% where white, and 50% were male. 3013 of these were not from South Africa, coming from 92 different countries. 3903 degrees and diplomas were awarded to students in December 2003.

There were 4 300 staff in 2003, 44% academic and 56% administrative and support.

The faculties of UCT are:

• Commerce
• Engineering & the Built Environment
• Health Sciences
• Humanities
• Law
• Science

Also associated are:

• Centre for Higher Education Development
• Graduate School of Business
• Graduate School in Humanities

Management

The chancellor is Ms Graca Machel. Her position is titular head of the university.
The vice-chancellor is noted African author and poet, Professor NS Ndebele
The Registrar is Mr Hugh Amoore
There are four Deputy Vice-Chancellors who manage different aspects of university life.

Notable Alumni

• Nobel Laureates:
  • Sir Aaron Klug (Chemistry, 1982)
  • Professor Alan MacLeod Cormack (Physics, 1979)
  • J. M. Coetzee (Literature, 2003)
• Professor Christiaan Barnard, who performed the first ever heart transplant at Groote Schuur
• Vincent Ebrahim, known for his part on The Kumars at No. 42, studied drama.
• Richard E. Grant, now an actor, is a graduate of the UCT Drama school.
• Mark Shuttleworth, an entrepreneur and the 1st African in space and 2nd space tourist, studied a Business Science (Finance) degree through the Commerce faculty.

Notable staff

• Cosmologist George Ellis, collaborator with Stephen Hawking and winner of the 2004 Templeton Prize, is Distinguished Professor of Complex Systems in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics
• Author Andre Brink is a professor in the English Language and Literature Department.
• The staff of UCT contains 17 A-rated scientists, meaning that they are world leaders in their fields of research.

Notable research

• The Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics is an international centre for research in the fields of cosmology and topology.
• The Department of Physics is well-known for research in high-performance and distributed computing.

History

The roots of UCT lie in the establishment of the South African College, a boys' school, in 1829. Between 1880 to 1900 the tertiary education part split off into the University.

UCT moved to the Rhodes estate campus in 1928. During the apartheid era, roughly 1960-1990, UCT consistently opposed apartheid, and was a bastion of liberalism and racial integration. 1987 particularly saw frequent clashes between protesting students and police. The official student newspaper, Varsity, frequently had its journalists and editors come under scrutiny from the ruling apartheid National Party government.

External links

• UCT website