This is a document submitted as part of the MPhil in Architecture & Urban Design at the Cambridge Design Research Studio. Following a dramatic restructuring of the higher education system in South Africa following the apartheid era, the thesis stems from considerations of the role of a new university in the country could be. This pilot study advocates for the university to be directly focussed on and actively involved in the development of its surroundings. This position is driven not only by consideration of what the university can and should aim to do in service to society but by exploring how this mission can inform strategies for growing an identity for the new South African university.