The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
n
public
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...
research university
A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are the most important sites at which knowledge production occurs, along with "intergenerational kno ...
situated in the northern areas of central
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( or ). The university has its roots in the mining industry, as do Johannesburg and the
Witwatersrand
The Witwatersrand () (locally the Rand or, less commonly, the Reef) is a , north-facing scarp in South Africa. It consists of a hard, erosion-resistant quartzite metamorphic rock, over which several north-flowing rivers form waterfalls, which ...
in general. Founded in 1896 as the South African School of Mines in
Kimberley
Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to:
Places and historical events
Australia
* Kimberley (Western Australia)
** Roman Catholic Diocese of Kimberley
* Kimberley Warm Springs, Tasmania
* Kimberley, Tasmania a small town
* County of Kimberley, a ...
,
it is the third oldest South African university in continuous operation.
The university has an enrolment of 40,259 students as of 2018, of which approximately 20 percent live on campus in the university's 17 residences. 63 percent of the university's total enrolment is for
undergraduate
Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-lev ...
study, with 35 percent being
postgraduate
Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate ( bachelor's) degree.
The organization and stru ...
and the remaining 2 percent being Occasional Students.
The 2017 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) places Wits University, with its overall score, as the highest ranked university in Africa. Wits was ranked as the top university in South Africa in the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) in 2016. According to the CWUR rankings, Wits occupies this ranking position since 2014.
History
Early years: 1896–1922
The university was founded in
Kimberley
Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to:
Places and historical events
Australia
* Kimberley (Western Australia)
** Roman Catholic Diocese of Kimberley
* Kimberley Warm Springs, Tasmania
* Kimberley, Tasmania a small town
* County of Kimberley, a ...
in 1896 as the
South African School of Mines. It is the third oldest South African university in continuous operation, after the
University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...
(founded in 1829), and
Stellenbosch University
Stellenbosch University ( af, Universiteit Stellenbosch) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant ...
(founded in 1866). Eight years later, in 1904, the school was moved to Johannesburg and renamed the Transvaal Technical Institute. The school's name changed yet again in 1906 to
Transvaal University College
Transvaal University College was a multi-campus public research university in South Africa which gave rise to the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Pretoria.
History
In 1896 the South African School of Mines was founded in K ...
. In 1908, a new campus of the Transvaal University College was established in
Pretoria
Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa.
Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...
. The Johannesburg and Pretoria campuses separated on 17 May 1910, each becoming a separate institution. The Johannesburg campus was reincorporated as the South African School of Mines and Technology, while the Pretoria campus remained the Transvaal University College until 1930 when it became the
University of Pretoria
The University of Pretoria ( af, Universiteit van Pretoria, nso, Yunibesithi ya Pretoria) is a multi-campus public university, public research university in Pretoria, the administrative and de facto capital of South Africa. The university was ...
.
In 1920, the school was renamed the University College, Johannesburg.
Open years: 1922–1959
Finally, on 1 March 1922, the University College, Johannesburg, was granted full university status after being incorporated as the University of the Witwatersrand. The Johannesburg municipality donated a site in Milner Park, north-west of
Braamfontein
Braamfontein (English: ''blackberry spring'', or more prosaicly ''blackberry springs''; also known as Braam) is a central suburb of Johannesburg, in South Africa, seat of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and some of South Africa's major c ...
, to the new institution as its
campus
A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a college campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls, student centers or dining halls, and park-like se ...
and construction began the same year, on 4 October. The first
Chancellor
Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...
of the new university was
Prince Arthur of Connaught
Prince Arthur of Connaught (Arthur Frederick Patrick Albert; 13 January 1883 – 12 September 1938) was a British military officer and a grandson of Queen Victoria. He served as Governor-General of the Union of South Africa from 20 November 1920 ...
and the first
Principal (a position that would be merged with that of Vice-Chancellor in 1948) was Professor
Jan Hofmeyr. Hofmeyr set the tone of the university's subsequent opposition to
apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
when, during his inaugural address as Principal he declared, while discussing the nature of a university and its desired function in a democracy, that universities "should know no distinctions of class, wealth, race or creed". True to Hofmeyr's words, from the outset Wits was an open university with a policy of non-discrimination on racial or any other grounds.
Initially, there were six faculties—Arts, Science, Medicine, Engineering, Law and Commerce—37 departments, 73 academic staff, and approximately 1,000 students. In 1923, the university began moving into the new campus, slowly vacating its former premises on Ellof Street for the first completed building in Milner Park: the Botany and Zoology Block. In 1925, the
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...
(the future
Edward VIII
Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; 23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972), later known as the Duke of Windsor, was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire and Emperor of India from 20 January 19 ...
) officially opened Central Block (which includes the Great Hall).
The university's first library, housed at the time in what was meant to be a temporary construction, was destroyed in a fire on Christmas Eve in 1931. Following this, an appeal was made to the public for £80,000 to pay for the construction of a new library, and the acquisition of books. This resulted in the fairly rapid construction of the William Cullen Library; opened in 1934.
, Origins and Architecture of the William Cullen Library at Wits, retrieved 16 September 2019 During this period, as the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
hit South Africa, the university was faced with severe financial restrictions. Nonetheless, it continued to grow at an impressive rate. From a total enrolment of 2,544 students in 1939, the university grew to 3,100 in 1945. This growth led to accommodation problems, which were temporarily resolved by the construction of wood and galvanised-iron huts in the centre of the campus (which remained in use until 1972).
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Wits was involved in South Africa's war efforts. The Bernard Price Institute of Geophysical Research was placed under the
Union of South Africa
The Union of South Africa ( nl, Unie van Zuid-Afrika; af, Unie van Suid-Afrika; ) was the historical predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into existence on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the Cape, Natal, Trans ...
's defence ministry, and was involved in important research into the use of
radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...
. Additionally, an elite force of female soldiers was trained on the university's campus.
In 1948 the
National Party (NP) was voted into power by South Africa's white electorate, and
apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
(
Afrikaans
Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...
for "separateness") policies started to become law. The racist separation policies sparked a response, in 1957, by Wits, the University of Cape Town,
Rhodes University
Rhodes University is a public university, public research university located in Makhanda, Eastern Cape, Makhanda (Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province. Established in 1904, ...
and the
University of Natal
The University of Natal was a university in the former South African province Natal which later became KwaZulu-Natal. The University of Natal no longer exists as a distinct legal entity, as it was incorporated into the University of KwaZulu-N ...
, who issued a joint statement entitled "The Open Universities in South Africa", committing themselves to the principles of university autonomy and academic freedom.
[The Institutional Context of Restructuring External and Internal Determinants](_blank)
, retrieved 13 December 2011
In 1959, the apartheid government's ''Extension of University Education Act'' forced restricted registrations of black students for most of the
apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
era; despite this, several notable black leaders graduated from the university.
Wits protested strongly and continued to maintain a firm and consistent stand in opposition to apartheid. This marked the beginning of a period of conflict with the apartheid regime, which also coincided with a period of massive growth for the university.
It was desegregated once again, prior to the abolition of apartheid, in 1990. Several of apartheid's most provocative critics, of either European or African descent, were one-time students and graduates of the university.
Growth and opposition to apartheid: 1959–1994
![Gavin Reilly Green, West Campus](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Gavin_Reilly_Green%2C_West_Campus.jpg)
As the university continued to grow (from a mere 6,275 students in 1963, to 10,600 in 1975, to over 16,400 by 1985), the expansion of the university's campus became imperative. In 1964, the medical library and administrative offices of the Faculty of Medicine moved to Esselen Street, in the
Hillbrow
Hillbrow () is an inner city residential neighbourhood of Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is known for its high levels of population density, unemployment, poverty, prostitution and crime.
In the 1970s it was an Apartheid-design ...
district of Johannesburg. In 1968, the Graduate School of Business was opened in
Parktown
Parktown is a wealthy suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa, the first suburb north of the inner city (both chronologically and geographically). It is affectionately known as one of the Parks, others including Parkview, Parkwood, Westcliff, Parkt ...
. A year later, the Ernest Oppenheimer Hall of Residence and Savernake, the new residence of the Vice-Chancellor (replacing Hofmeyr House on the main campus) were both established, also in Parktown. That same year, the Medical School's new clinical departments were opened.
During the course of the 1960s, Wits acquired a limestone cave renowned for its archaeological material located at
Sterkfontein
Sterkfontein (Afrikaans for ''Strong Spring'') is a set of limestone caves of special interest to paleo-anthropologists located in Gauteng province, about northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa in the Muldersdrift area close to the town of K ...
. A farm next to Sterkfontein named
Swartkrans
Swartkrans is a fossil-bearing cave designated as a South African National Heritage Site, located about from Johannesburg. It is located in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site and is notable for being extremely rich in archaeological m ...
rich in archaeological material was purchased in 1968, and excavation rights were obtained for archaeological and palaeontological purposes at Makapansgat, located in
Limpopo Province
Limpopo is the northernmost Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The capital and largest city in the province is Polokwane, while th ...
.
The 1960s also witnessed widespread protest against apartheid policies. This resulted in numerous police invasions of campus to break up peaceful protests, as well as the banning, deportation and detention of many students and staff. Government funding for the university was cut, with funds originally meant for Wits often being channelled to the more conservative
Afrikaans
Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...
universities instead. Nonetheless, in the words of Clive Chipkin, the "university environment was filled with deep contradictions", and the university community was by no means wholly united in opposition to apartheid. This stemmed from the Wits Council being dominated by "highly conservative members representing mining and financial interests", and was compounded by the fact that the mining industry provided major financial support for the university. With a strongly entrenched "
lonial mentality" at Wits, along with "high capitalism, the new liberalism and communism of a South African kind, combined with entrenched white settler mores (particularly in the Engineering and Science faculties) ... the university ... was an arena of conflicting positions generally contained within polite academic conventions".
[Joburg.org.za](_blank)
, "Wits turns 85 today", retrieved 30 December 2011
The 1970s saw the construction of Jubilee Hall and the Wartenweiler Library, as well as the opening of the Tandem Accelerator; the first, and to date only, nuclear facility at a South African university.
In 1976, Lawson's Corner in Braamfontein was acquired and renamed University Corner. Senate House, the university's main administrative building, was completed in 1977. The university underwent a significant expansion programme in the 1980s. The Medical School was moved to new premises on York Street in Parktown on 30 August 1982. Additionally, in 1984 the university acquired the Milner Park
showgrounds from the Witwatersrand Agricultural Society. These became West Campus,
[ ] with the original campus becoming East Campus.
In 1984, the Chamber of Mines building opened. A large walkway named the Amic Deck was constructed across the
De Villiers Graaff Motorway which bisects the campus, linking East Campus with West Campus.
The 1980s also witnessed a period of heightened opposition to apartheid, as the university struggled to maintain its autonomy in the face of attacks from the apartheid state. Wits looked anew to the "Open Universities" statement of 1957, to which the
University of the Western Cape
The University of the Western Cape (UWC) is a public research university in Bellville, near Cape Town, South Africa. The university was established in 1959 by the South African government as a university for Coloured people only. Other un ...
now also added its voice. As the apartheid government attempted, through the threat of financial sanctions, to bring Wits under firmer control, protest escalated culminating in the General Assembly of 28 October 1987, at which the university reiterated its commitment to the values underlying the "Open Universities" statement.
University management itself came under increasing grassroots pressure to implement change within the university. A Wits-initiated research project, ''Perspectives of Wits'' (''POW''), published in 1986, revealed a surprising disconnect between the perceptions disadvantaged communities had of Wits and the image Wits had been attempting to convey of itself as a progressive opponent of apartheid. ''POW'', which had involved interviews with members of organisations among disadvantaged communities in the
PWV area, international academics, students and staff at Wits, and even a meeting with the then-banned
ANC
The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election installe ...
in
Lusaka
Lusaka (; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zambia. It is one of the fastest-developing cities in southern Africa. Lusaka is in the southern part of the central plateau at an elevation of about . , the city's population was ab ...
, revealed that to many in the surrounding disadvantaged communities, there was a perception of Wits as an elitist institution dominated by white interests. A need was identified for further transformation of the university.
However, instead of translating ''POW''
's proposals into institutional plans for transformation, Wits reacted in a defensive manner and refused to even acknowledge many of the criticisms that had been raised. Within the university community the perception was different—it was felt that Wits was on the right track. The contradiction between internal and external perceptions would increasingly undermine the unity of the university community, as progressive elements on campus began to take more radical positions in opposition to apartheid. Internal debates about, among other things, the
international academic boycott of South Africa and the role of academics in the
anti-apartheid struggle
The Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM), was a British organisation that was at the centre of the international movement opposing the South African apartheid system and supporting South Africa's non-White population who were persecuted by the policie ...
led to increasing division within the university. University management was increasingly seen as isolated and out of touch, and began to be referred to by the
metonym
Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept.
Etymology
The words ''metonymy'' and ''metonym'' come from grc, μετωνυμία, 'a change of name' ...
"the eleventh floor", referring to the eleventh floor of Senate House where top management at Wits is located.
Nonetheless, the university community in general continued to uphold its opposition to apartheid and its commitment to university autonomy and academic freedom. The remainder of the 1980s saw numerous protests on campus, which often ended with police invasions of the university. In 1990, when
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...
was released, the students of Men's Res, on East Campus, unofficially renamed the lawn outside their residence "Mandela Square".
Post-apartheid: 1994–present
On 25 February 2000, university management began implementing a policy called "Wits 2001" under which work deemed 'non-core' to the functioning of the university (such as cleaning and landscaping) was outsourced to external contractors; the university's academic departments were also restructured: the university's nine faculties were reduced to five, the university's 99 departments were merged into 40 schools, and courses that were deemed redundant following a mass review were cancelled. Wits management did, however, initiate programmes to ameliorate some of the negative effects of Wits 2001. These included the implementation of early retirement and voluntary severance packages to minimise retrenchments. Additionally, many of the affected employees' children were studying at Wits at the time, and received bursaries as part of their parents' employment contracts with Wits. The university therefore continued to offer bursaries to them until the completion of the degrees for which they were then enrolled, as well as offering bursaries to the children of affected employees who
matriculated
Matriculation is the formal process of entering a university, or of becoming eligible to enter by fulfilling certain academic requirements such as a matriculation examination.
Australia
In Australia, the term "matriculation" is seldom used now. ...
in 2000.
[Wits University (web archive)](_blank)
"Wits Council approves major changes" (26 February 2000), retrieved 29 December 2011
Wits 2001 attracted widespread criticism from the workers and staff affected, as well as from students and other staff. The arguments behind the restructuring were criticised as badly reasoned, and the policy itself was criticised as being regressive and
neoliberal
Neoliberalism (also neo-liberalism) is a term used to signify the late 20th century political reappearance of 19th-century ideas associated with free-market capitalism after it fell into decline following the Second World War. A prominent fa ...
. The then-vice-chancellor, Professor
Colin Bundy
Colin James Bundy (born 4 October 1944) is a South African historian, former principal of Green Templeton College, Oxford and former director of SOAS University of London. Bundy was an influential member of a generation of historians who substantia ...
, said in defence of Wits 2001 that "
is fundamental reorganisation of both academic activities and support services will equip the university for the challenges of higher education in the 21st Century".
Management issued a statement on 30 May 2000 responding to criticism of Wits 2001 from the
National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (NEHAWU) is a trade union in South Africa. With a membership of 235,000 it is the largest public sector union in the country. It organizes State, Health, Education and Welfare workers.
H ...
(NEHAWU), the largest trade union among Wits employees, in which it defended Wits 2001 as constituting the "outsourcing
fcontracts for certain non-core functions, rather than any shift in ownership relations or governance" contra NEHAWU's claims that it constituted
privatisation
Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...
. Management further defended the changes as "improving the financial sustainability of Wits, taking pressure off management and students, and allowing for better academic and support facilities and services". Along with "Igoli 2002" in Johannesburg, Wits 2001 was one of the policies implemented in the early 2000s which resulted in the formation of the
Anti-Privatisation Forum
The Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF) was established in Johannesburg in July 2000 by activists and organisations involved in two key anti-privatisation struggles: the struggle against iGoli 2002, and the struggle against Wits 2001 at Wits University ...
(APF).
In 2001, the Johannesburg College of Education was incorporated into the university as Wits Education Campus under the national
Department of Education
An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...
's plan to reform tertiary education in South Africa.
[wits.ac.za/education/ Wits University](_blank)
"Before WSoE: The history of JCE", retrieved 16 September 2019 In 2003, a student
mall
Mall commonly refers to a:
* Shopping mall
* Strip mall
* Pedestrian street
* Esplanade
Mall or MALL may also refer to:
Places Shopping complexes
* The Mall (Sofia) (Tsarigradsko Mall), Sofia, Bulgaria
* The Mall, Patna, Patna, Bihar, India
* M ...
, called the Matrix, was opened in the Student Union Building on East Campus.
In 2015 to 2016, the
FeesMustFall
#FeesMustFall was a student-led protest movement that began in mid-October 2015 in South Africa. The goals of the movement were to stop increases in student fees as well as to increase government funding of universities. Protests started at the ...
movement and protests resulted in shut downs at Wits and other leading South African universities.
In March 2021, one person was killed at the Braamfontein campus after police fired rubber bullets at students protesting the university's decision to bar students owing more than 150,000
rand
The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is financed ...
from registering for the new academic year. According to the university, it is owed over a billion rand from students over the last seven years and was at risk of financial unsustainability.
Coat of arms
The current coat of arms of the university was designed by Professor G. E. Pearse, and edited by Professor W. D. Howie to correct
heraldic
Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branc ...
inaccuracies, before being accepted by the
State Herald of South Africa in 1972. The design of the coat of arms incorporates a gold background in the upper section of the shield to represent the Witwatersrand gold fields – on which the mining industry that gave rise to the university is based – along with an open book superimposed upon a cogwheel, representing knowledge and industry. The silver wavy bars on the lower section of the shield represent the
Vaal
The Vaal River ( ; Khoemana: ) is the largest tributary of the Orange River in South Africa. The river has its source near Breyten in Mpumalanga province, east of Johannesburg and about north of Ermelo and only about from the Indian Ocean. I ...
and
Limpopo
Limpopo is the northernmost province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The capital and largest city in the province is Polokwane, while the provincial legislature is ...
rivers which form the northern and southern borders of the Witwatersrand gold fields. Above the shield is the head of a
Kudu
The kudus are two species of antelope of the genus ''Tragelaphus'':
* Lesser kudu, ''Tragelaphus imberbis'', of eastern Africa
* Greater kudu, ''Tragelaphus strepsiceros'', of eastern and southern Africa
The two species look similar, thou ...
, an antelope typical of the Witwatersrand and the university's mascot. The university's motto, "''Scientia et Labore''", meaning "Through Knowledge and Work" in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
, appears just below the shield.
[Wits University](_blank)
, Coat of Arms, retrieved 18 September 2019
The university's coat of arms evolved from the badge of the South African School of Mines. This badge consisted of a diamond with a shield superimposed upon it. A prospector's pick and a sledge hammer overlaid with broken ore and a mill appeared on the shield. The South African School of Mine's motto was the same as the university's current one, and surrounded the shield.
Governance and administration
![Great Hall facade through jacarandas](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Great_Hall_facade_through_jacarandas.jpg)
As set out in the ''Higher Education Act'' (Act No. 101 of 1997) and in the Statute of the University of the Witwatersrand,
the university is governed by
Council
A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or natio ...
. The Chancellor of the university is the ceremonial head of the university who, in the name of the university, confers all degrees. The positions of Principal and Vice-Chancellor are merged, with the Vice-Chancellor responsible for the day-to-day running of the university and accountable to Council. Council is responsible for the selection of all Vice-Chancellors, Deputy Vice-Chancellors and Deans of Faculty.
The responsibility for regulating all teaching, research and academic functions of the university falls on
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
. Additionally, the interests of the university's students are represented by the
Students' Representative Council
{{Unreferenced, date=July 2014A students' representative council, also known as a students' administrative council, represents student interests in the government of a university, school or other educational institution. Generally the SRC forms par ...
(SRC), which also selects representatives to Senate and Council.
Campuses
The university is divided into five academic campuses, the main administrative campus is
East Campus. Across the
De Villiers Graaff Motorway lies
West Campus. The two are joined by a brick-paved walkway across the highway called the Amic Deck. East and West Campus effectively form a single campus, bordered by Empire Road to the north, Jan Smuts Avenue to the east, Jorrissen Street and Enoch Sontonga Road to the south and Annet Road to the west. The historic East Campus is primarily the home of the faculties of Science and Humanities, as well as the University Council, Senate and management. West Campus houses the faculties of Engineering and the Built Environment, and Commerce, Law and Management. East Campus is home to four residences, namely Men's Res (male), Sunnyside (female), International House (mixed) and Jubilee Hall (female). West Campus is home to David Webster Hall (female), Barnato Hall and West Campus Village (both mixed).
Wits has three more academic campuses, all located in
Parktown
Parktown is a wealthy suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa, the first suburb north of the inner city (both chronologically and geographically). It is affectionately known as one of the Parks, others including Parkview, Parkwood, Westcliff, Parkt ...
. Wits Education Campus (WEC) houses the school of education, within the Faculty of Humanities. WEC boasts three female residences, forming the Highfield cluster, namely Girton, Medhurst and Reith Hall. East of WEC (across York Road), lies Wits Medical Campus which is the administration and academic centre of the Faculty of Health Sciences. West of WEC (across Victoria Avenue) lies the Wits Management Campus, with the Wits Business School. Within the Wits Management Campus are the Ernest Oppenheimer Hall (male residence) and the mixed Parktown Village.
There are centres that are not academic although referred to by the university as campuses. These are Graduate Lodge, Campus Lodge, South Court and Braamfontein Centre; all in the city district of Braamfontein and all mixed gender. Furthermore, there is the Wits Junction (mixed) and the Knockando Halls of Residence (a male residence located on the grounds of a
Parktown mansion called ''Northwards'') in Parktown, and the mixed Esselen Street Residence in Hillbrow.
Sites
Provincial heritage sites and heritage objects
The University of the Witwatersrand houses two
provincial heritage sites and two
heritage objects. The Great Hall (technically the façade of the Robert Sobukwe Building, formerly known as Central Block, in which the Great Hall is located), and the
Dias Cross housed in the William Cullen Library are both
provincial heritage sites. They were formerly national monuments, until 1 April 2000 when the
National Monuments Council was replaced by a new system which made former national monuments the responsibility of provincial governments following the passage of the ''National Heritage Resources Act''. The heritage objects are
Jan Smuts
Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, (24 May 1870 11 September 1950) was a South African statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various military and cabinet posts, he served as prime minister of the Union of South Af ...
' study, housed in Jan Smuts House, and the Paul Loewenstein Collection of rock art. All of the university's national heritage sites and objects are located on East Campus.
Wits Institute of Social and Economic Research (WiSER)
The University of the Witwatersrand is home to the Wits Institute of Social and Economic Research (WiSER), founded in 2001 by Deborah Posel.
Cradle of Humankind
Wits acquired the Sterkfontein and Swartkrans sites in the 1960s, both of which were rich in fossil remains of early
hominids
The Hominidae (), whose members are known as the great apes or hominids (), are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: '' Pongo'' (the Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutan); ''Gorilla'' (the east ...
.
In 1999, the area was declared a
World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
by
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
as the ''Cradle of Humankind''. As a World Heritage Site, responsibility for the site shifted from the university to the government of
Gauteng Province
Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'.
Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only 1. ...
, with the provincial government becoming the designated management authority responsible for developing and protecting the site. It is aided by the South African Heritage Resources Agency, which has also declared the area a national heritage site. The university's archaeology and palaeontology departments, within the School of Geosciences of the Faculty of Science, continue to play a leading part in excavations of the site; and Wits retains ownership of Sterkfontein's intellectual rights. Professor
Lee Berger
Lee Rogers Berger (born December 22, 1965) is an American-born South African paleoanthropologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence. He is best known for his discovery of the '' Australopithecus sediba'' type site, Malapa; his leade ...
discovered
Australopithecus sediba
''Australopithecus sediba'' is an extinct species of australopithecine recovered from Malapa Cave, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa. It is known from a partial juvenile skeleton, the holotype MH1, and a partial adult female skeleton, the para ...
(2010) and
Homo naledi
'' Homo naledi'' is an extinct species of archaic human discovered in 2013 in the Rising Star Cave, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa dating to the Middle Pleistocene 335,000–236,000 years ago. The initial discovery comprises 1,550 specimen ...
(2015) at the site.
[
]
Museums
![Origins Centre and M1 highway](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Origins_Centre_and_M1_highway.jpg)
The university hosts at least fourteen museums. These include the Adler Museum of Medicine, the Palaeontology Museum and the only Geology Museum in Gauteng Province. The displays include a vast spectra not limited to the
Taung
Taung is a small town situated in the North West Province of South Africa. The name means ''place of the lion'' and was named after Tau, the King of the Barolong. ''Tau'' is the Tswana word for lion.
Education
High,Secondary and Middle Schools ...
skull, various
dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
fossils
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in ...
and
butterflies
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...
.
Rock art
The Roberts-Pager Collection of
Khoisan
Khoisan , or (), according to the contemporary Khoekhoegowab orthography, is a catch-all term for those indigenous peoples of Southern Africa who do not speak one of the Bantu languages, combining the (formerly "Khoikhoi") and the or ( in t ...
rock art copies is located in the Van Riet Lowe building on East Campus.
Johannesburg Planetarium
The Johannesburg Planetarium was the first full-sized
planetarium
A planetarium ( planetariums or ''planetaria'') is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation.
A dominant feature of most planetarium ...
in Africa and the second in the
Southern Hemisphere. It was originally bought by the Johannesburg municipality to be set up as part of the celebration of the city's seventieth anniversary. After acquiring an old projector from the
Hamburg Planetarium
Hamburg Planetarium is one of the world's oldest, and one of Europe's most visited planetariums. It is located in the district of Winterhude, Hamburg, Germany, and housed in a former water tower at the center of Hamburg Stadtpark.
History
Pl ...
, which was modernised before being shipped to South Africa, the municipality sold the projector to the university for use as both an academic facility for the instruction of students, and as a public amenity. Plans for a new building to house the projector were first drawn up in 1958, and construction began in 1959. The planetarium finally opened on 12 October 1960. The Johannesburg Planetarium is often consulted by the media, and the public, in order to explain unusual occurrences in the skies over South Africa. In 2010, the Johannesburg Planetarium celebrated its golden jubilee.
Wits Art Museum
The museum's collection started in the 1950s and has since grown substantially.
[Wits Art Museum](_blank)
, History, retrieved 30 September 2019 In 1972 the Gertrude Posel Gallery was established on the ground floor of Senate House on East Campus. It was joined in 1992 by the Studio Gallery which formed the "lower gallery" reserved for the display of African art. The galleries' collections grew steadily, with the Studio Gallery becoming renowned for having one of the best collections of African
beadwork
Beadwork is the art or craft of attaching beads to one another by stringing them onto a thread or thin wire with a sewing or beading needle or sewing them to cloth. Beads are produced in a diverse range of materials, shapes, and sizes, and vary b ...
in the world, and by 2002 it was decided that more space was needed. Thus, the Gertrude Posel Gallery and the Studio Galley were closed. The ground floor of University Corner was selected as the site for the new Wits Art Museum, which now houses the collections after it was completed and launched in 2012.
Wits Theatre
The Wits Theatre is a
performing arts
The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Perform ...
complex within the university, although it also caters for professional companies, dance studios and schools.
[Wits University](_blank)
, Wits Theatre, retrieved 30 September 2019 It is run by the university's Performing Arts Administration (PAA).
Prior to the opening of the Wits Theatre, the Wits Schools of Dramatic Art and Music had been staging productions in a building on campus called the Nunnery, a former convent. The Nunnery has been retained as a teaching venue.
Wits Centre for Diversity Studies (WiCDS)
The Wits Centre for Diversity Studies (WiCDS) was established in 2014 at the University of Witwatersrand. It is based in the Faculty of Humanities and aims to build capacity to meet the challenges of diverse societies, especially in
post-apartheid South Africa through interdisciplinary postgraduate education and research.
Academics
Research
Wits University is the home to 28 South African Research Initiative (SARChI) Chairs and six DST-NRF Centres of Excellence. There are just more than 423 NRF rated researchers, of which 28 are 'international leading scholars' in their research fields, or so called A-rated researchers. The university also has a wide range of research entities including 10 national Centres of Excellence.
Faculties
The university consists of five faculties: Commerce, Law and Management;
Engineering and the Built Environment;
Health Sciences
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to health sciences:
Health sciences are those sciences which focus on health, or health care, as core parts of their subject matter. Health sciences relate to multiple acad ...
;
Humanities
Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...
; and
Science
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
.
Commerce, Law, and Management
This Faculty currently offers various undergraduate and postgraduate degrees
in accountancy,
economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...
, management, and law. The faculty participates in the WitsPlus programme, a part-time programme for students, and is based in the Commerce, Law and Management Building on West Campus.
Engineering and the Built Environment
This Faculty is made up of 7 schools being: Architecture & Planning,
Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Construction Economics & Management, Electrical & Information Engineering, Mechanical, Industrial & Aeronautical Engineering and Mining Engineering. The faculty is based in the Chamber of Mines Building on West Campus, which houses the faculty office and the Engineering Library. The School of Civil & Environmental Engineering and
Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering are located in the Hillman and Richard Ward Buildings on the East Campus respectively.
Health Sciences
This Faculty is based on the Wits Health Sciences Campus in Parktown, and consists of the School of Anatomical Sciences; Clinical Medicine; Oral Health Sciences; Pathology; Public Health; Physiology; and Therapeutic Sciences. This Faculty uses the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, the Helen Joseph Hospital, and the Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital as its main teaching hospitals. It also utilizes facilities throughout Gauteng, North West Province, and Mpumalanga. The Faculty runs a graduate entry medical and physiotherapy programme, masters courses (science, medicine and dentistry) and a PhD programme.
Humanities
This Faculty is based in the South West Engineering Building on East Campus and consists of the schools of Social Sciences, Literature and Language Studies, Human and Community Development, Arts, and Education.
Science
The Faculty is based in the Mathematical Sciences Building within the Wits Science Stadium on Braamfontein Campus West and consists of the schools of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences; Chemistry; Physics; Molecular and Cell Biology; Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies; Geosciences; Mathematics; Statistics and Actuarial Science and School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics.
Libraries
![William Cullen Library](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/William_Cullen_Library.jpg)
The University of the Witwatersrand Library Service consists of two main libraries, the Warteinweiler and William Cullen libraries on East Campus and twelve branch libraries. The Wartenweiler Library primarily serves the Faculty of Humanities. It also contains the Library Administration, Library Computer Services and Technical Services departments as well as the Short Loan collection, the Reference collection, Inter-library Loans department, the Multimedia Library, and the Education and Training department as well as the Electronic Classroom. The William Cullen Library contains the Africana collection, specialising in social, political and economic history. It also contains the Early and Fine Printed Books collection, which includes the Incunabula (books printed before 1501). Finally, it also contains a collection of Government Publications and journals in the
arts
The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both hi ...
,
humanities
Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...
and
social science
Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soc ...
s.
The branch libraries are:
* The Martienssen Library for the Built Environment, which serves the schools of
architecture and planning and construction management within the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment. It is located in the John Moffat Building (also known as the Architecture Building) on East Campus.
* The Biological & Physical Sciences Library which is situated in the Oppenheimer Life Sciences Building on East Campus and serves the Faculty of Science, together with the Geomaths Library.
* The Commerce Library which, along with the Wits Library of Management, serves the schools of commerce and management. It is located to the west of the Tower of Light on West Campus.
* The Education Library (also known as the Harold Holmes Library) which is located on
Wits Education Campus in Parktown and serves the school of education within the Faculty of Humanities.
* The Engineering Library, which is located in the Chamber of Mines Building on West Campus and serves the schools of engineering within the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment.
* The GeoMaths Library, which is situated in the basement of Senate House on East Campus and serves a range of schools within the faculties of Science, Engineering and the Built Environment, and Humanities.
* The Witwatersrand Health Sciences Library (WHSL) which serves the Faculty of Health Sciences. It is divided into four branches, one of which (formerly at Helen Joseph Hospital) is now a "virtual library" available only online. Two of the other branches are at the
Wits Medical Campus in Parktown, while the remaining branch is at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in
Soweto
Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...
.
* The Wits Library of Management, which, together with the Commerce Library, serves the schools of commerce and management. It is located in the Donald Gordon Building on the Management Campus in Parktown.
* The Law Library which serves the school of law within the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management. It is located in the Oliver Schreiner Law Building on West Campus. Unlike the university's other libraries, the Law Library is governed directly by the school of law, rather than by the University of the Witwatersrand Library.
Reputation and ranking
![Pond by the Gavin Reilly Green, Wits University](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Pond_by_the_Gavin_Reilly_Green%2C_Wits_University.jpg)
In 2019 Wits was ranked 201–300 globally and 2nd nationally in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), commonly known as Shanghai Ranking. In the 2019/2020 Centre for World University Rankings (CWUR) Wits is ranked 254 globally (top 1.3% in the world). In the 2019 US News Best global Universities Rankings, Wits was ranked 2nd in Africa and #197 globally with a Global score of 59.9. Wits ranked #194 globally in the 2020 Times Higher Education World University Rankings.
The University of Witwatersrand Business School was ranked 6th best among all business schools in Africa and the Middle East in the 2010 according to the
QS Global 200 Business Schools Report
Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) is a British company specialising in the analysis of higher education institutions around the world. The company was founded in 1990 by Nunzio Quacquarelli.
History
On 5 October 2017, QS Quacquarelli Symonds acquired Hob ...
. Additionally, the Business School's MBA program has been ranked as the top MBA program in South Africa by the Financial Mail for the past 6 years.
Frankenwald controversy
![John Moffat Building University of the Witwatersrand](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/John_Moffat_Building_University_of_the_Witwatersrand.jpg)
In 1905 the mining magnate
Alfred Beit
Alfred Beit (15 February 1853 – 16 July 1906) was a Anglo-German gold and diamond magnate in South Africa, and a major donor and profiteer of infrastructure development on the African continent. He also donated much money to university edu ...
donated a large piece of land, Frankenwald Estate, north of Johannesburg, to the
Transvaal Colony
The Transvaal Colony () was the name used to refer to the Transvaal region during the period of direct British rule and military occupation between the end of the Second Boer War in 1902 when the South African Republic was dissolved, and the ...
to be used for 'educational purposes' – the land was transferred to Wits in 1922 by an Act of Parliament. According to the
Mail & Guardian
The ''Mail & Guardian'' is a South African weekly newspaper and website, published by M&G Media in Johannesburg, South Africa. It focuses on political analysis, investigative reporting, Southern African news, local arts, music and popular cultu ...
the university entered into an agreement in 2001 with a private developer, , to build a shopping centre, offices, light industry and medium and high-density housing on the property.
Student demographics
Like other South African universities, the University of Witwatersrand promotes diversity in order to
address
An address is a collection of information, presented in a mostly fixed format, used to give the location of a building, apartment, or other structure or a plot of land, generally using political boundaries and street names as references, along w ...
the widespread inequality and
injustice caused by apartheid across South Africa. For this reason, the university's admission policies promote diversity and
Black Economic Empowerment
Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) is a policy of the South African government which aims to facilitate broader participation in the economy by black people. A form of affirmative action, it is intended especially to redress the inequalities creat ...
by admitting students from a wide range of backgrounds. These policies enable the university to assemble a diverse student body that reflects the demographic profile of South Africa's
Gauteng
Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'.
Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...
region across a wide array of traits, including race, gender, socio-economic background, urban and rural geographic origin, culture, ethnicity, disability, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, and other traits.
Racial composition
The racial composition of the university's student population is as follows:
Gender composition
The gender composition of the university is shown below.
Wits Enterprise
Wits Enterprise is wholly owned by University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg to commercialise the
intellectual property
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...
of the university. They are also responsible for short courses, technology transfer and research support.
[WE]
Wits Enterprise
, retrieved 15 August 2015.
Notable alumni and academics
*
John Burland
John Boscawen Burland (born 4 March 1936) is an Emeritus Professor and Senior Research Investigator at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of Imperial College London.
In 2016, Burland was elected as a member into the Natio ...
, Professor of Soil Mechanics,
Imperial College London
Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...
. Well known for stabilizing The
Leaning Tower of Pisa
The Leaning Tower of Pisa ( it, torre pendente di Pisa), or simply, the Tower of Pisa (''torre di Pisa'' ), is the ''bell tower, campanile'', or freestanding bell tower, of Pisa Cathedral. It is known for its nearly four-degree lean, the result ...
*
Cheryl Cohen, alumna, professor and public health researcher
*
Stephanie (Greenberg) Lowrance, Architect
*
Jef Valkeniers
Jozef Maria Zacharias (Jef) Valkeniers (Schepdaal, Belgium - 29 December 1932) is a physician-neuropsychiatrist and a Flemish politician.
Biography
Jef Valkeniers was born in 1932 as the seventh child in a large brewer family. He grew up in Schep ...
, Doctor and Politician
Nobel Prize Laureates
*
Aaron Klug
Sir Aaron Klug (11 August 1926 – 20 November 2018) was a British biophysicist and chemist. He was a winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his development of crystallographic electron microscopy and his structural elucidation of bio ...
, 1982
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...
*
Nadine Gordimer
Nadine Gordimer (20 November 192313 July 2014) was a South African writer and political activist. She received the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991, recognized as a writer "who through her magnificent epic writin ...
, 1991
Nobel Prize in Literature
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, caption =
, awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature
, presenter = Swedish Academy
, holder = Annie Ernaux (2022)
, location = Stockholm, Sweden
, year = 1901
, ...
*
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...
, who attended but did not graduate from the university, 1993
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...
*
Sydney Brenner
Sydney Brenner (13 January 1927 – 5 April 2019) was a South African biologist. In 2002, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with H. Robert Horvitz and Sir John E. Sulston. Brenner made significant contributions to work ...
, 2002
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, accord ...
See also
*
''Dawn of Humanity'' (2015 PBS film)
* ''
Widdringtonia whytei
''Widdringtonia whytei'', the Mulanje cedar or Mulanje cypress, is a species of conifer native to Malawi, where it is endemic to the Mulanje Massif at altitudes of 1,830–2,550 m. It has become endangered as a result of over-harvesting for its ...
''
References
Bibliography
* Online . Print .
* ''The Golden Jubilee of the University of the Witwatersrand'' 1972 (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 (University of the Witwatersrand Press)
* ''Wits Sport: An Illustrated History of Sport at the University of the Witwatersrand'' 1989 Jonty Winch (Windsor)
* ''Wits: A University in the Apartheid Era'' by Mervyn Shear (1996) (University of the Witwatersrand Press)
* ''Wits: The "Open Years": A History of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 1939–1959'' 1997 Bruce Murray (University of the Witwatersrand Press)
* ''A Vice-Chancellor Remembers: the Memoirs of Professor G.R. Bozzoli'' 1995 Guerino Bozzoli (Alphaprint)
* ''Wits Library: a Centenary History'' 1998 Reuben Musiker & Naomi Musiker (Scarecrow Books)
External links
*
History of Transvaal University CollegeRock artwithin
Google Arts & Culture
Google Arts & Culture (formerly Google Art Project) is an online platform of high-resolution images and videos of artworks and cultural artifacts from partner cultural organizations throughout the world.
It utilizes high-resolution image technol ...
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Witwatersrand, University of The
Schools in Johannesburg
Business schools in South Africa
Public universities in South Africa
Universities in Gauteng
Educational institutions established in 1896
1896 establishments in the Cape Colony