The University of the Western Cape is a national university, alert to its African and international context as it strives to be a place of quality, a place to grow. It is committed to excellence in teaching, learning and research, to nurturing the cultural diversity of South Africa, and to responding in critical and creative ways to the needs of a society in transition.
Drawing on its proud experience in the liberation struggle, the university is aware of a distinctive academic role in helping build an equitable and dynamic society. In particular it aims to: advance and protect the independence of the academic enterprise.
Design curricular and research programmes appropriate to its southern African context.
Further global perspectives among its staff and students, thereby strengthening intellectual life and contributing to South Africa’s reintegration in the world community.
Assist educationally disadvantaged students gain access to higher education and succeed in their studies.
Nurture and use the abilities of all in the university community.
Develop effective structures and conventions of governance, which are democratic, transparent and accountable.
Seek racial and gender equality and contribute to helping the historically marginalised participate fully in the life of the nation.
Encourage and provide opportunities for lifelong learning through programmes and courses.
Help conserve and explore the environmental and cultural resources of the southern African region, and to encourage a wide awareness of these resources in the community.
Co-operate fully with other stakeholders to develop an excellent, and therefore transformed, higher education system.
Kwame Nkrumah and Ali Mazrui associated nuclear weapons with imperialism and racism, but proposed different approaches to address the problem they present.
Social media has proved to be a helpful source of observations of snakes feeding. Knowing more about their diet is useful because it’s linked to their venom biochemistry.
The governments of several African countries have been reporting counts of confirmed cases, recoveries and deaths related to COVID-19, without a breakdown by age and sex.
We highlight the distressing rise in the prices of essential food products. We call for the urgent expansion of price controls, as well as an inquiry into the price-setting of major retailers.
When South Africa eventually emerges from the fog of the COVID-19 crisis, structural reform, including land reform, will be high on the political agenda as never before.
Josè Frantz, University of the Western Cape; Erica Munnik, University of the Western Cape, and Mario Smith, University of the Western Cape
Changes in South Africa’s higher education sector have increased the number and intensity of roles academics take on. This has led to a spike in workload and associated stress.
The science to policy process that was developed to guide climate mitigation decisions can be applied to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, without having to be reinvented.
Goldberg was the youngest Rivonia triallist. Segregated prisons meant he was sent to Pretoria, while his fellow accused were incarcerated on Robben Island.
COVID-19 has shown that technology is no longer a luxury but an important component of the education process. In presenting solutions, a wide range of factors must be considered.
The variation captured in these genomes, when compared to genomes sampled elsewhere, provides a fingerprint that might be associated with a particular virus and a particular cluster of transmission.
A third of South African children live below the food poverty line. The fact that many caregivers can’t work because of the lockdown will worsen food insecurity. Here’s what needs to be done.