UWC making a difference

UWC

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Transforming Communities • Nurturing Innovation • Finding Sustainable Solutions

U

VC INTRO

WC, we believe, is on the cusp of greatness.

Thanks to some astute planning and determined leadership at all levels, the university is now rated as among the top research-led universities in the country.

We have a strong sense of our place and role in the national and global context.

As our history will attest, we’ve come a long way since our troubled founding. But as that same history shows, we’ve always dreamed of change, and we weren’t afraid to dream big.

This year, for instance, we have developed a new Institutional Operating Plan (IOP) 2015-2019, which allows us to imagine the campus that we need to become to make ourselves sustainable, and to stay relevant.

The document is concerned both with consolidating our position as one of Africa’s best universities, and with making space for strategic agility, which implementing the last IOP has taught us is vital in a rapidly changing environment.

Building on what we have achieved thus far and weighing up new options at this promising stage in UWC’s journey offers a particular opportunity for imaginative thinking and rewarding engagement.

There is an end to this, of course. As I’ve stated before, I believe that UWC – and any university – has to be an unapologetically intellectual community with an ongoing interest in the significance of knowledge for our country and world. It has to engage with the world beyond its borders.

At UWC, we have a sense of our place in the world and what we want to achieve. We believe that the changes we make in our own community can reverberate through our entire society, and the rest of the world.

We imagine making a difference on many fronts. From advancing development in communities by making it possible for students from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds to succeed; to improving public health and creative enjoyment.

Realising these objectives demands, we know, resources. We have to pay attention to staffing, facilities, and practices, as well as to national and international research partnerships and to competitiveness in funding applications.

The rewards could be immense.

Professor Tyrone Pretorius Rector and Vice-Chancellor

UWC MILESTONES

THE PLAN UWC’s IOP is framed as a broad and integrated operational framework for 2015-2019.

More than that, it represents a strategic interpretation of UWC’s role as a public South African university. Our five themes intersects with eight Goal Areas. It is concerned with issues of national transformation and social justice, inclusiveness and diversity, sustainability and innovation, and the need for local and global partnerships – built on the underlying principle that resources follow strategies.

1960: The University College of the Western Cape opens its doors.

1975: Prof Richard van der Ross is appointed as UWC’s first

black Rector.

2008: The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship is introduced

to UWC, promoting an international postgraduate

education experience. The first cohort of Fellows is

accepted in 2009.

1978: UWC’s Cape Flats Nature Reserve is declared a National

Monument (now known as a provincial heritage site).

1983: The University of the Western Cape Act finally grants

UWC autonomy on the same terms as the established

‘white’ institutions – UWC is free to determine its own destiny.

THEMES

1987: New Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Jakes

Gerwel declares UWC as the ‘university of the left’.The

University deracialises and opens its doors to African students.

1. THE UNIVERSITY IN THE DIGITAL AGE

2. INNOVATION

3. RESEARCH- INTENSIVENESS

4.

INTERNATIONALISATION

GOAL AREAS

5. THE 21ST CENTURY GRADUATE

UWC inaugurates its longest serving Chancellor, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who will serve for more than 25 years.

1990: UWC become the first university to award the late

President Mandela with an honorary doctorate upon his

release from prison.

1991: UWC launches South Africa’s first School of Public Health

outside a medical school, with Prof David Sanders as

founding director.

1993: UWC’s anti-apartheid media project Bush Radio goes on

air as a pirate radio station – and shortly thereafter becomes

South Africa’s first licensed community radio station.

1994: Many academics from UWC join President Mandela’s

government and are appointed in ministerial and advisory positions.

1. THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE

2. TEACHING AND LEARNING

3. RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

4. EXCELLENT TALENT

UWC leadership take part in writing the higher education policy for the incoming Government. The South African interim Constitution and Final Constitution are drafted at UWC.

1995: UWC launches its very first website – joining the internet

age before other universities in the Mother City.

5. FINANCIAL VIABILITY

6. ENHANCING UWC’S STANDING AND PROFILE

7. DEVELOPMENT OF THE CAMPUS AND SURROUNDING AREAS

8. LEADERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND GOVERNANCE

UWC launches the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) to engage in research, training, policy development and advocacy in relation to land reform, rural governance and natural resource management.

2002: Under the leadership of Rector and Vice-Chancellor,

Prof Brian O’Connell, UWC successfully resists a forced

merger, and holds onto its name and autonomy.

2003: UWC acquires the first protein X-ray crystallography

facility in South Africa (thanks to funding from the

Carnegie Foundation), a major boost to research capacity development in biotechnology.

2009: South African writer Meg Vandermerwe initiates UWC

Creates, the only creative writing programme in South

Africa operating across three languages (English,

Afrikaans and isiXhosa).

2010: 10 SARChI chairs awarded to UWC, the highest number

awarded to any university in SA that year. (As at 2011,

UWC host 13 Chairs.)

2012: UWC launches its Technology Transfer Office to help

promote the development and protection of intellectual

property by the University’s research community, staff

and students.

UWC becomes the first university to be declared Africa’s Greenest Campus in the inaugural African Green Campus Initiative Challenge.

2013: UWC signs the Berlin Declaration on Open Access in

the Sciences and Humanities, joining hundreds of

institutions around the world dedicated to supporting the

principles of open access and working to achieve

openness in publicly funded projects.

2014: The DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security is

established at UWC, the first Centre of Excellence to be

housed at a historically disadvantaged institution.

For the first time, UWC awards over 100 PhDs and over 4,000 degrees in one year.

UWC is recognized as a top-tier university by the Department of Higher Education and Training.

At UWC’s first Chancellor’s Dinner for Outstanding Alumni, eight UWC alumni who went on to become Rectors or Principals of South African universities are honoured. (Prof Tyrone Pretorius, the ninth, was appointed later.)

2015: UWC graduates its first master’s students as a hub of the

National Nanosciences and Technologies Platform.

2016: UWC’s Centre fo Humanities Research is awarded the

Flagship on Critical Thought in African Humanities by the NRF.

UWC is awarded a UK-SA bilateral chair in food security.

UWC: IN NUMBERS

RACE

20,583

TOTAL STUDENTS

MALE

8,214

FEMALE 12,369

COLOURED

47%

4,109

1ST TIME ENTERING UNDERGRADS

4,424

POSTGRADUATES

16,159

43%

UNDERGRADUATES

GENDER

AFRICAN

UNDERGRAD & POSTGRAD BREAKDOWN

WHITE

5%

INDIAN

5%

FUNDING SUPPORT TO STUDENTS Funds administered

by Financial Aid Office (including NSFAS) per annum:

R330.3m NSFAS allocation:

FACULTIES ARTS

+

COMMUNITY & HEALTH SCIENCES

DENTISTRY

ECONOMIC & MANAGEMENT

SCIENCES

EDUCATION

LAW

NATURAL SCIENCES

R216.1m UWC bursaries

R16m

GROWING OUR RESEARCH CAPACITY For so long starved of resources, historically disadvantaged universities have struggled to claim a place among South Africa’s recognised research-led institutions. UWC has bucked this trend, and is now increasingly acclaimed for its research output. Among other initiatives, the University continues to improve the quality of its postgraduate offering. Our graduation and throughput rates are now in line with national benchmarks.

The IOP acknowledges that while challenges remain, there are opportunities in which the University can excel. This would allow it to become a leader in the production and transfer of cutting-edge knowledge in key fields nationally, regionally and internationally.

350

RATINGS

117

NUMBER OF STAFF WITH NRF RATINGS Number of A-rated researchers

Number of B-rated researchers

24

NATIONAL CENTRES OF EXCELLENCE

250 Number of Staff

A report by the National Research Foundation (NRF) shows that UWC leads South African universities in research in the fields of physics, molecular biology & genetics, and biology & biochemistry. It takes second place in computer science research.

3

300

13

Number of national research chairs held under the South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI)

200 150

RESEARCH OUTPUT

100

7th National research output

50

Masters

0

overall growth in output between

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 168 175 192 191 200 173 182 196 188 199

Doctrate 199 210 222 249 243 247 283 290 301 332 Rated Researchers 65 67 64 57 77 75 87 95 104 116

36% Increase in staff with a Master’s 67%

RISING STAR

Increase in staff with a Doctorate

78% Increase in staff with an NRF Rating NRF

The Evaluation & Rating System is a proxy for quality

2005 and 2013 54%

90%

overall growth in peerreviewed conference proceedings, the highest in the country

LEADING THE WAY In 2014, UWC capped the country’s first graduates from the new MSc in Nanoscience programme. Funded by the Department of Science and Technology, the programme is offered jointly with the Universities of Johannesburg and the Free State and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

UWC BY THE NUMBERS 1: UWC is the leading university in South Africa in the fields of Ecology, Nuclear Physics, Genetics & Heredity, Planning & Development, and Multidisciplinary Sciences (Web of Science citation impact for 1993–2012).

48: By the end of 2016 the number of state-of-the-art school science labs developed by UWC’s Science Learning Centre for Africa.

56: The percentage of teaching staff at UWC who hold doctorates.

2: UWC has been elected South Africa’s Greenest Campus twice since the Green Campus Initiative awards began in 2012. UWC is ranked second in Computer Sciences by the National Research Foundation.

3: The number of World Health Organisation Collaborating Centres hosted by UWC (in Oral Health, Health Systems Complexity and Change, and Bioinformatics and Human Health).

3: Current Vice-Chancellors of South African universities who are UWC alumni (including Prof Tyrone Pretorius).

4: UWC’s rank overall among South African institutions for research citations.

7: The spot UWC holds on the Times Higher Education rankings of the top universities in Africa for research influence.

9: UWC alumni have gone on to become Rectors or Vice- Chancellors of South African universities.

13: The number of SARChI Chairs hosted at UWC. 15: UWC academics who have been honoured with membership in the Academy of Sciences of South Africa.

100: The number of PhDs who graduated from UWC in 2014.

BUSINESS/ MANAGEMENT

37.9% HEADCOUNT

BY MAJOR FIELD OF STUDY

220: Species of indigenous plants protected in UWC’s Cape Flats Nature Reserve (along with over 100 bird species).

365: The percentage growth in UWC’s research output from 2001 to 2013.

7,794

SCIENCE,

12.2%

100: UWC’s ranking among all 2,500 universities in the BRICS countries (placing it in the top 5%).

8.6%

41.3% HUMANITIES

EDUCATION

1,767

8,510

1,000: Number of papers held by UWC’s Research Repository, available to anybody in the world.

2,000: Student volunteers at UWC who actively participate in green campus initiatives, including clean-up campaigns, green talks and debates, and green gardening activities.

1994 2015 10,000: The number of students from South Africa and other African countries who have participated in the UWC School of Public Health’s Summer and Winter Schools since 1992, making it the largest continuing education programme in public health in Africa.

20,000: Students currently registered at UWC.

47: The percentage of South Africa’s dentists produced by UWC’s Faculty of Dentistry.

2,512

DEGREES CONFERRED MASTERS STUDENTS DOCTORAL STUDENTS

1931 4030 109% 52

393 756%

8

100 1,150%

INNOVATION BRAVE NEW WORLDS UWC continues to build strong relationships with South African industry. This has accelerated over recent years as more and more UWC researchers are exploring commercialisation opportunities. This drive is supported by UWC’s Technology Transfer Office (TTO).

Prepping for the future • UWC hosts the 2,5 kW hydrogen fuel cell power generator prototype unit, demonstrating South Africa’s innovative capabilities in the emerging hydrogen and fuel cell technologies space. The prototype was developed by the HySA Systems Integration and TechnologyValidation Centre of Competence (HySA Systems) in collaboration with Hot Platinum (Pty) Ltd, a local company involved in power management and control electronics.

• UWC’s South African Institute for Advanced Materials Chemistry (SAIAMC) holds two large research and innovation grants from the DST. The first is for a lithium-ion battery and super-capacitor key programme extension, while the second is for the development of a plasma spray-coating system.

• UWC is recognised as a world leader in Constitutional Law and Child Rights Law. • The Sensorlab hosts the SARChI Chair in Nanoelectrochemistry and Sensor Technology and is the top national laboratory for smart sensing devices.

ENGAGEMENT THE STUDENT-IN-COMMUNITY UWC takes the student-in-community as its academic point of departure for its community engagement. Which means the University pursues ongoing engagement with the communities from which its students hail. Its aim is to provide academic work of the highest order that addresses the concerns of those communities as it strives, at the same time, to prepare those students for a place in the global environment. The University’s engagement takes many forms – from teaching and research to advocacy and service. In pursuit of these objectives, UWC has established a Community Engagement Unit, which plays an advisory and coordinating role in such projects. It also runs its own projects, including the launch of a UWC Community Engagement Database that, for the first time, keeps track of the University’s community work. Two such projects are.

DENTISTRY UWC’S Faculty of Dental is the largest in South Africa, providing cutting edge research & teaching while also serving providing world class services to the community.

Rooted in Community The faculty is rooted in the communities services and across two facilities were scholars assist approximately 120,000 theatre patients annually.

ADDRESSING THE SOUTH AFRICAN MATHS & SCIENCE CHALLENGE Through the Science Learning Centre for Africa (SLCA), the university is promoting the culture of maths and science, one school at a time.

We are building a culture of maths and science in the Western Cape (WC), Eastern Cape (EC) and Northern Cape (NC).

We are currently working with more than:

It also services the Red Cross Children’s Hospital, the largest referral hospital for children in South Africa. Its genetics clinic has patient records for 30 years.

Teaching & Learning The faculty produces approximately 50% of the South Africa’s dentists. It is also actively involved in building capacity throughout the continent.

Playing a vital role in training the trainer.

Promoting excellence in oral health care The Faculty plays a prominent role in the advancement of oral health in South Africa and Africa.

332

TEACHERS

& 80,000 STUDENTS

Infrastructure Programme We have constructed Science Learning Centres (laboratories) at schools, by the end of 2016 laboratories will be completed.

48

Culture of Science Learning

We build a culture of maths and science learning through: • Tutorial programmes for Grade 12 learners • Science competitions in the EC, WC and NC learners • A Women in Mathematics programme • An Aviation programme • A Robotics • Annual National Science Week • And Science clubs in the three provinces.

Nurturing the next generation of leaders

UWC IN THE GLOBAL LANDSCAPE We live in a small world. Any bid to become a university recognised for its research and innovation has to play its part in that connected world. UWC has long enjoyed fruitful and collaborative ties with international institutions. For example, it recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of Dynamics of Building a Better Society (DBBS), an inter-university collaboration with Flemish universities in Belgium. It is also strengthening its existing links to Nordic countries through the Southern African-Nordic Centre (SANORD), a project that now boasts 43 member institutions, and its collaboration with the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORHED). It also has a decade-long and ongoing collaboration with the University of Missouri, with which it has launched a new project to boost research in nanoscience, herbal medicine, radio-pharmaceutical and cancer.

LOCAL CONCERNS WITH GLOBAL IMPACT • UWC co-hosts, with the University of Pretoria, South Africa’s Centre of Excellence in Food Security, an initiative jointly funded by the country’s Department of Science and Technology (DST) and National Research Foundation (NRF).

Working with over 100 researchers from around the country and world, the Centre seeks to address one of the world’s most pressing questions. This is the first DST-NRF Centre of Excellence to be hosted at a historically black university.

• UWC also hosts three World Health Organisation (WHO) collaborating centres. These are in the fields of capacity development, teaching and research in dentistry, and public health.

• UWC has established a Centre for Multilingualism and Diversities Research (CMDR), which looks at transmigrational and global economies of the South.

UWC 2015 PHD GRADUATE AND POST-DOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOW, DR IMOGEN WRIGHT Selected for the 2016 USA Techwoman programme and African Innovation Prize. She is part of UWC’s spin-off company, Hyrax Biosciences’ Exatype programme. Exatype is a novel software application that enables healthcare workers to rapidly evaluate HIV DNA in an HIV-AIDS infected patient’s blood in order to gauge the patient’s level of resistance to different HIV antiretroviral drugs.

With 71% of those living with HIV/AIDS residing in Africa, the speed, simplicity and accuracy of this unique solution to a complex problem has the potential to bring personalised medicine within the reach of those most in need. Dr Wright is the second young scientist from UWC to be selected for the USA Techwoman programme.

UWC ASTROPHYSICS STUDENT TO ATTEND PRESTIGIOUS NOBEL LAUREATE MEETING The Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) nominated five top young physicists from South Africa to attend the 66th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Lindau, Germany, in 2016. Siyambonga Matshawule will join 402 other young scientists from 80 different countries at this year’s meeting.

Siyambonga is the second young UWC astrophysicist to attend the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings, which have been held annually since 1951.

• UWC hosts the UNESCO Chair in Science & Mathematics Education.

• The UNESCO Centre for Groundwater Studies researches and advises on sustainable groundwater use and management in Africa.

UWC Alumnus who have gone on to be Vice-Chancellors.

NEW FACILITIES OPENED SINCE 2014 ResLife centre

R35 MILLION SUSTAINABILITY

Chemical Sciences Building

R226 MILLION

At the University of the Western Cape, we are educating young people to succeed in a global world of increasing disruption - digital disruption, disruption of the status quo in thinking differently and entrepreneurially, creating new knowledge, and by being relevant to the challenges of a changing world.

Upgrading of Sports Stadium

R58 MILLION NEW FACILITIES IN THE PIPELINE

This means addressing socio-economic disruption and the hard questions that emanate around inequality and the need for change.

Support for UWC has never been more critical than it is now as South Africa faces major challenges and as the University’s traditional sources of income – including government support are dwindling and tuition fees are being challenged in the discussion around inequality.

A sense of collective responsibility for the future of higher education is imminent.

We need your support to enable UWC to be a leader both in South Africa and on the African continent as a major player in the transformation of the status quo.

Few academic institutions can survive on revenue from government and fees alone and are dependent on regular and sustained funding other sources to thrive.

Advancement is integral to creating and maintaining those solid partnerships with current and prospective donors and friends of the University.

Bellville Medical Centre

THE UWC 5 YEAR CAPITAL CAMPAIGN 2016 -2020 The UWC capital campaign aims to raise funds primarily for the overall sustainability of the University underscored by its growing infrastructure needs, which are imperative to sustain the viability of excellence for our students.

It is essential to initiate major capital projects that are underpinned by an educational vision, promote collaborative problem based learning and permit greater reassignment, consolidation, and rationalisation of these spaces.

The UWC 5 year capital campaign aims to address some of these major funding challenges. Ironically, the challenge facing UWC stems from being one of South Africa’s leading researchintensive universities while at the same time honouring its commitment to open access to students from disadvantaged backgrounds and disadvantaged basic education. UWC creates opportunities every year for significant numbers of high school graduates who otherwise would not have been admitted to other Universities.

ACCESS FOR SUCCESS : THE JAKES GERWEL EDUCATIONAL, ENDOWMENT AND DEVELOPMENT FUND

Rector of the University of the Western Cape, consistently advocated equal access to higher education by broadening access to UWC for disadvantaged students.

Since education is the core business of the University, the aim of the Jakes Gerwel Education, Development and Endowment Fund is to enable deserving students from disadvantaged backgrounds to study at UWC through the provision of comprehensive bursaries.

INFRASTRUCTURE

The Jakes Gerwel Education, Development and Endowment Fund was established in 2012 in memory of the late Professor Jakes Gerwel who, during his term as

UWC is now faced with a new challenge borne out of its own success – the need to build the necessary infrastructure to keep up with its growth and the needs of its students and researchers. Plans for the next five years will see the campus expand into a more vibrant space that is urban in scale and density, and is marked by facilities for innovation, learning, engaged living and work.

Having acquired the former JS Marais Hospital in the nearby Bellville central business district, the University will be able to expand its infrastructure for the health disciplines offered by the Faculty of Community and Health Sciences. The former hospital will be transformed into the new and state-of-the-art Bellville Medical Centre, which will provide highquality education to students from the departments of Nursing, Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy and Natural Medicine.

Computational and Mathematical Sciences Building The building will be erected in the university’s old Life Sciences complex.

The new building will form part of the larger Science Precinct, and houses the Departments of Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science and Information Systems.

MAKE A DONATION TO UWC The University recognises and appreciates the generosity of individuals, business and organisations that invest in our students, programmes and services in order to help the University fulfil its ethos and mission.

Many innovative sponsorship options are available to donors, including public/ private partnerships in the development of infrastructure and University sustainability, research collaboration, training and development, capacity building and skills development.

Potential donors wishing to find out more about the above projects are invited to contact: The University of the Western Cape’s Donor Relations Office on: Tel: +27 21 959 3904/ +27 21 959 2627 E-mail: donor@uwc.ac.za or Ms Ingrid Fourie Manager: Donor Relations Tel:+27 21 959 9517 E-mail:ifourie@uwc.ac.za All donations to UWC are tax deductible in accordance with Section 18A of the Income Tax Act 58 of 1962.

You can make a donation to UWC by cheque, online, or by electronic funds transfer

1 DONATION VIA EFT Banking Details: Name of Bank: ABSA Bank Branch Code: 631609 Account No: 4068739851 Reference: SRC -Name of Donor Branch: Public Sector, Western Cape Swift Code: ABSAZAJJ Please fax a copy of your deposit slip to +27 21 959 9791, or email sbarnes@uwc. ac.za. Should you have any questions or queries regarding donation options, please feel free to contact Ms. Somayah Barnes at Tel: +27 21 959 2143 or sbarnes@uwc.ac.za.

MONTHLY DEBIT ORDERS

SMS DONATION

Should you wish to support the UWC SRC Ikamva Lethu - Our Future Fund by authorising a monthly debit order, kindly contact Ms. Somayah Barnes at Tel: +27 21 959 2143 or email her at sbarnes@ uwc.ac.za to make the arrangement.

Should you wish to support the UWC SRC Ikamva Lethu - Our Future Fund by making an SMS donation, please SMS your name to the short code #49751.

SMS donations cost R30. Please feel free to make multiple donations in this way.

2

3 CASH DEPOSIT AT THE UWC CASHIERS If you prefer supporting the UWC SRC Ikamva Lethu - Our Future Fund by making a cash deposit at the UWC Cashiers - please use the entity number: B-JB0454990834/540/05. Kindly email or fax proof of deposit to Ms. Somayah Barnes at +27 21 959 9791 or email her at sbarnes@uwc.ac.za.

5 ONLINE DONATIONS

4

If you’d like to support the UWC SRC Ikamva Lethu - Our Future Fund by making an online donation, please visit our website: www.uwc.ac.za/src Banking Details: Name of Bank: ABSA Bank Branch Code: 631609 Account No: 4068739851 Reference: SRC -Name of Donor Branch: Public Sector, Western Cape Swift Code: ABSAZAJJ

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