University of the Witwatersrand
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| University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg | |
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| Motto: | Scientia et Labore |
| Established: | 1896 |
| Type: | Public university |
| Chancellor: | Dikgang Moseneke |
| Vice-Chancellor: | Loyiso Nongxa |
| Staff: | 1 951 |
| Students: | 24 381 |
| Location: | Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa |
| Campus: | Urban setting |
| Website: | http://www.wits.ac.za/ |
The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (pronounced vit-vaters-rant) is a leading South African university situated in Johannesburg. It is better known as Wits University (pronounced vits).
Due to the 1959 Extension of University Education Act the school was only allowed to register a small number of black students for most of the apartheid era, even though several notable black anti-apartheid leaders graduated from the university. It became desegregated again in the last few years of apartheid. It is the home of the Witwatersrand University Press, one of Africa's leading academic publishers, and also the oldest and largest university press in Africa.
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[edit] History
The school was founded in Kimberley in 1896 as the "South African School of Mines". Eight years later, in 1904 the school moved to Johannesburg and changed its name to the "Transvaal Technical Institute". The school changed its name in 1906 to the "Transvaal University College" and in 1910, the school again changed its name to the "South African School of Mines and Technology". Finally, in 1922, the school was granted full university status after incorporating the College as the "University of the Witwatersrand". The area of Milner Park was identified as the location for the new university campus, and construction began in the same year. There were to be six faculties that offered degrees at the University: Arts, Science, Medicine, Engineering, Law, and Commerce.
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The school experienced significant growth after its incorporation as a university, growing from a mere 6,275 students in 1963 to over 16,400 in 1985. In 1964, the Medical Library of the Faculty of Medicine moved to Esselen Street, in the Hillbrow section of Johannesburg. During the course of the 1960s, the university opened many new schools and buildings, and acquired a limestone cave renowned for its archaeological material located at Sterkfontein. The Graduate School of Business was established later in 1968 in Parktown. A farm next to Sterkfontein named Swartkrans rich in archaeological material was purchased in 1968, and excavation rights were obtained for archaeological and palaeontological purposes at Makapansgat, located in Limpopo province. The next year, the Ernest Oppenheimer Residence opened next to the Business school in Parktown, and later in the same year, clinical departments at the new Medical School opened. In 1976, Lawson's Corner was renamed University Corner. Senate House, the university's main administrative building, was occupied in 1977. The university underwent a significant expansion programme in 1984, acquiring the Milner Park Showgrounds and renaming it the West Campus. In 1984, the Chamber of Mines building opened. A walkway "The Amic Deck" was constructed across the motorway bisecting the campus, linking the East and West Campuses. In 2004 the Johannesburg College of Education (JCE) was incorporated into Wits under the national department of education's plan to reform the face of tertiary education in South Africa.
[edit] Campuses
The University has 5 academic campuses. The Main campus is divided, by the M1 and Yale Road, into East and West Campuses. The East Campus specialises primarily with the Faculties of Science and Humanities, and the University Senate and administration. The West Campus houses the Commerce, Law, Management, Engineering and the Built Environment Faculties. The Main Campus is home to 6 residences, namely Sunnyside and Jubilee Halls (female residences), Men's Res (College and Dalrymple Houses), Barnato Halls, David Webster, West Campus Village and International House.
Off the Main Campus are three academic campuses, all in Parktown. The Wits Education Campus (WEC) specialises with Education which is a school within the Faculty of Humanities. WEC boasts three female residences, Girton, Medhurst and Reith Halls. East of WEC (across York Road), lies the Medical School which is the administration and academic centre for the Faculty of Health Sciences.
West of WEC (across Victoria Avenue), lies the Wits Business School. It is the leading and most acclaimed Business School in South Africa [1]. Within the Business School borders are the Ernest Oppenheimer Halls (male residence) and Parktown Village I.
There are centres that are not academic but residential and referred to by the University as campuses. These are Graduate Lodge, Campus Lodge, South Court and Braamfontein Centre; all next to the Main Campus in Braamfontein. Then Paktown Village II and Knockando Halls (a male residence) in Parktown, and Esselen Residence in Hillbrow.
[edit] Faculties and Schools
The University consists of five faculties:
[edit] Commerce, Law, and Management
The faculty currently offers various undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in accountancy, commerce, economics, management, and law. It boasts the acclaimed Wits Business School, as well as a graduate school devoted to public and development management. The faculty participates in the WitsPlus programme, a part time programme for students.
[edit] Engineering and the Built Environment
[edit] Health Sciences
[edit] Humanities
This Faculty consists of schools of Arts, Education, Social Sciences, Literature and Language Studies among others.
[edit] Science
[edit] Notable Campus Buildings
- Art Galleries: There are two art galleries that are open to the public, the Gertrude Posel Gallery and the Studio Gallery. Both of these are located in Senate House. The Studio Gallery is renowned for having one the best collections of African beadwork in the world.
- Rock Art: The JD Roberts-Pager Collection of Bushmen rock art copies is located in the Van Riet Lowe building on the East Campus.
- Museums: The University hosts 14 museums. These include the Adler Museum of the History of Medicine, the Palaeontology Museum and the only Geology Museum in Gauteng Province. The displays cover a vast spectra including the Taung skull, dinosaur fossils and butterflies.
- Sterkfontein Caves: Near Krugersdorp. World renowned as one of the largest sources of hominid fossils in the world. The area has been awarded World Heritage status. The Robert Broom Museum is next to the caves.
[edit] Alumni and Former Faculty
- H. J. De Blij, Geographer, Professor, Television Personality, Analyst, and Award Winner.
- Lionel Abrahams, novelist, poet, editor, critic, essayist and publisher.
- Amancio D'Alpoim (Pancho) Guedes, Portuguese architect, participant of Team X
- Selig Percy Amoils, ophthalmologist and biomedical engineering inventor.
- Ian Bader, architect.
- Lee Berger, paleoanthropologist and winner of the 1st National Geographic Prize for Research and Exploration.
- Sir Winfried Franz Wilhen Bischoff, Chairman of Citigroup, former Group Chief Executive and Chairman of Schroders plc.
- George Bizos, human rights advocate.
- Herman Charles Bosman, writer and journalist.
- Dennis Brutus, former political activist and poet.
- Colin Bundy (Warden, Green College, Oxford; formerly Director and Principal, School of Oriental and African Studies and Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of London; and previously Vice Chancellor and Principal, University of the Witwatersrand)
- Rory Byrne, chief designer for the Ferrari Formula One team.
- Arthur Chaskalson, former President of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and Chief Justice of South Africa.
- Ron Clarke Paleoanthropologist.
- Johnny Clegg, musician.
- Raymond Dart, anatomist and anthropologist, discoverer of the Taung Child.
- Clement M. Doke, linguist.
- Jonathan Drummond-Webb
- Shannon Esra, actress.
- Elisabeth Eybers, poet.
- Clinton Fein, artist, activist
- Ruth First, anti-apartheid activist and scholar.
- Bruce Fordyce, marathon and ultramarathon athlete who won the Comrades Marathon a record nine times (eight times consecutively).
- David A. Forsyth, machine vision researcher.
- Natan Gamedze, Swazi Prince, Supreme Court Translator and Orthodox Rabbi.
- Imran Garda, News Anchor for Al Jazeera English.
- Max Gluckman, anthropologist.
- Richard Goldstone, judge and international war crimes prosecutor.
- Giles Henderson, CBE, Master of Pembroke College, Oxford
- Aura Herzog, Israeli writer.
- Jan Hofmeyr, politician.
- Gavin Hood, writer, producer and director, best known for directing Tsotsi.
- Joel Joffe, human rights lawyer who represented Nelson Mandela in the Rivonia Trial.
- Norm Judah, Microsoft Services chief technology officer of Worldwide Services and IT
- Claire Johnston, singer best known as the face and voice of Mango Groove.
- Paul Kantor, cardiologist (Sick Children's Hospital- Toronto), Former Chief Cardiologist (Hamilton Children's Hospital).
- Ahmed Kathrada, politician, anti-apartheid activist and political prisoner.
- Teresa Heinz Kerry, philanthropist and the wife of U.S. Senator John Kerry.
- David King, scientist.
- James Kitching, Karroo paleontologist.
- Aggrey Klaaste, journalist and editor, best known as the editor of the Sowetan from 1988 to 2002.
- Danie G. Krige, Mining Engineer who pioneered the field of geostatistics.
- Ludwig Lachmann, economist and important contributor to the Austrian School.
- Tony Leon, politician and former leader of the Democratic Alliance.
- David Lewis-Williams, is Professor emeritus of Cognitive Archaeology at the University of the Witwatersrand specialising in Upper-Palaeolithic and Bushmen rock art. He is the founder of the Rock Art Research Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand.
- Doron Lubinsky, mathematician and author.
- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, ex-wife of Nelson Mandela.
- Ismail Mahomed, first post-apartheid Chief Justice.
- Nevelle Charles Starke, former veternarian.
- Nelson Mandela, the first President of South Africa to be elected in fully-representative democratic elections.
- Manfred Mann, Keyboard player for the bands Manfred Mann and Manfred Mann's Earth Band, among others.
- Judith Mason, renowned South African painter
- Eduardo Mondlane, the father of Mozambican independence.
- Patrice Motsepe, leading South African mining entrepreneur. Mamelodi Sundowns boss
- Phaswane Mpe, poet and novelist.
- Ezekiel Mphahlele, writer and academic.
- Connie Mulder, former politician.
- Frank Nabarro, solid state physicist, DVC.
- Lionel Ngakane, filmmaker.
- Wanda Orlikowski, Information Systems scholar
- Seymour Papert, artificial intelligence pioneer and inventor of the Logo programming language.
- David Pettifor, physicist.
- Cedric Phatudi
- Mamphela Ramphele, academic, businesswoman, medical doctor and anti-apartheid activist.
- Audrey Richards, social anthropologist.
- Peter Sarnak, mathematician.
- Harry Schwarz, lawyer and politician.
- Mark Sebba, linguist [2]
- Friedel Sellschop, physicist [3]
- Herbert Sichel, statistician.
- Joe Slovo, Communist politician, long time leader of the South African Communist Party (SACP), and leading member of the African National Congress.
- Himla Soodyall, geneticist.
- Patrick Soon-Shiong, founder Abraxis BioScience, billionaire
- Helen Suzman, anti-apartheid activist and politician.
- Phillip Tobias, paleoanthropologist and anatomist.
- Benedict Wallet Vilakazi, Zulu poet, novelist, and educator. The first black South African to receive a Ph. D.
- Neil Lazarus, critic, essayist, Professor of 'postcolonial' literature, theory and culture at University of Warwick
- Ivan Vladislavic, South African novelist
- David Webster, social anthropologist and anti-apartheid activist.
- Ernst Oswald Johannes Westphal, linguist and an expert in Bantu and Khoisan languages.
- John K. Lundy, visionary bioanthropologist and sagacious medical examiner.
- Helen Zille, Leader of the Democratic Alliance (South Africa)
[edit] Nobel Prize Laureates
- Aaron Klug, 1982 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
- Nadine Gordimer, 1991 Nobel Prize in literature
- Nelson Mandela, 1993 Nobel Peace Prize
- Sydney Brenner, 2002 Nobel Prize in Medicine
[edit] Books about the University
- The Golden Jubilee of the University of the Witwatersrand 1972 ISBN 0-85494-188-6 (Jubilee Committee, University of the Witwatersrand Press)
- Wits: The Early Years : a History of the University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg and its Precursors 1896 - 1936 1982 Bruce Murray ISBN 0-85494-709-4 (University of the Witwatersrand Press)
- Wits Sport: An Illustrated History of Sport at the University of the Witwatersrand 1989 Jonty Winch ISBN 0-620-13806-8 (Windsor)
- Wits: A University in the Apartheid Era 1996 Mervyn Shear ISBN 1-86814-302-3 (University of the Witwatersrand Press)
- Wits: The "Open Years": A History of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 1939-1959 1997 Bruce Murray ISBN 1-86814-314-7 (University of the Witwatersrand Press)
- A Vice-Chancellor Remembers: the Memoirs of Professor G.R. Bozzoli 1995 Guerino Bozzoli ISBN 0-620-19369-7 (Alphaprint)
- Wits Library: a Centenary History 1998 Reuben Musiker & Naomi Musiker ISBN 0-620-22754-0 (Scarecrow Books)
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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South African universities |  |
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| Traditional universities Cape Town | Fort Hare | Free State | KwaZulu-Natal | Limpopo | North-West Pretoria | Rhodes | Stellenbosch | Western Cape | Witwatersrand
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