Located on the slopes of Devil’s Peak in Cape Town, the University of Cape Town is a leading, research-intensive university in South Africa and on the continent, known for its academic excellence and pioneering scholarship. The university is home to a third of South Africa’s A-rated researchers (acknowledged by the Department of Science and Technology as international leaders in their field) and a fifth of the country’s national research chairs. UCT encourages students and staff to use their expertise to speed up social change and economic development across the country and continent, while pursuing the highest standards of excellence in academic knowledge and research: developing African solutions to African challenges that are also shared by developing nations around the world.
UCT, like the city of Cape Town, has a vibrant, cosmopolitan community drawn from all corners of South Africa. It also attracts students and staff from more than 100 countries in Africa and the rest of the world. The university has strong partnerships and networks with leading African and other international institutions - helping to enrich the academic, social and cultural diversity of the campus as well as to extend the reach of UCT’s academic work.
A student protests against colonial-era statues at the University of Cape Town. Changing the curriculum structure is another way to decolonise South Africa’s universities.
Mike Hutchings/Reuters
It’s not just the content of South Africa’s university curricula that needs to be re-examined. The country’s degree structure should be reconsidered, too.
South African’s maize crops are an example of a GMO crop.
Reuters
There are huge global inequalities in knowledge production and exchange. What drives this inequality and how can it be corrected?
What’s in a name? Plenty, if it is a dinosaur such as the Changyuraptor, a genus of the ‘four-winged’ predatory dinosaur.
S. Abramowicz, Dinosaur Institute
A dinosaur’s name says something about the dinosaur itself. They are grouped together according to similarities they share, which also indicates their ancestral relationships to one another.
Badly sited wind farms may pose a threat to Bearded Vultures in southern Africa.
Shane Elliott
Bats have developed special attack mechanisms for hunting moths, and moths have responded by developing defence mechanisms to avoid being eaten.
Thenjiwe Madzinga sits with her grandson Thina Gxotelwa in the small room they share in a shack in Cape Town’s Khayelitsha township. Madzinga cares for her five grandchildren, including four who were orphaned when her daughter died from AIDS in 2002.
Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters
Oscar Pistorius was convicted of culpable homicide for what was deemed a tragic accident. In light of that verdict, he has not been subject to any special treatment in terms of his sentence.
Only a small portion of Porto Novo, Benin, is built-up. The city is taking steps to combat climate change.
Anton Ivanov/Shutterstock
Porto Novo in Benin, Rouen in France and Da Nang in Vietnam are taking steps to mitigate the harsh effects of climate change, which will hit them hard if they don’t.
The dogmas of ruling and rebel groups in Africa conflate political conflict and spirituality.
Reuters/Alain Amontchi
The failure of African states to adequately address their racial, ethnic, cultural, religious and economic differences provided the fertile ground on which rebel groups now prosper.
Leonardo DiCaprio plays Jay Gatsby in the The Great Gatsby. Jay’s story has been used by economists to explain the combination of unequal distribution of income and less economic mobility.
Reuters/Andrew Kelly
Evidence on the ability, or lack thereof, of children to rise above the economic status of their parents shines light on the continued persistence of inequality, including in South Africa.
Species facing the blitz of accelerating, human-driven change don’t always cope well. Birds are among the most visible windows into this world of vulnerability.
HIV positive t-shirts have been distributed to reduce the stigma attached to the disease. This would have been unthinkable 30 years ago.
Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters
June 5 2015 marks 34 years since the first reports of AIDS in a medical journal.
Detractors argue that decolonising the curriculum to include writers like Steve Biko (who was much admired by former president Nelson Mandela) will lower standards.
Mike Hutchings/Reuters
South Africa’s inequality levels are stark. The rich are super rich, the poor very poor. There’s a gaping hole in the middle and this is the greatest threat to stability.
Zulu king Goodwill Zwelithini with the late former South African president Nelson Mandela and Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi. Mandela combined a deep faith in culture and constitutionalism.
Reuters
Managing Africa’s water sources is a matter of vital importance for people to have any hope of surviving on the continent
The Union Buildings in Pretoria, home to South Africa’s government. Public confidence in civil servants has been severely eroded.
Thomas Mukoya/Reuters
Political factors have played a disproportionate role in decisions on the promotion, transfer and performance assessments of government officials.
A 3rd year chemical engineering student from the University of Cape Town in a vacation “boot camp” to help with supplementary exam preparation.
Jennifer Case
Professor of medicine and deputy director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town