The University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town (UCT) is South Africa's oldest university, and is one of Africa's leading teaching and research institutions.
UCT was founded in 1829 as the South African College, a boys' school which also provided some tertiary education. The College developed into a fully fledged university during the period 1880 to 1900, thanks to increased funding from private sources and the government.
During these years, the College built its first dedicated science laboratories, and started the departments of mineralogy and geology, opened admissions to women, and the consolidated the College's tertiary status. Its pre-matriculation years were later relegated to a secondary school. The years 1902 to 1918 saw the establishment of the Medical School, the introduction of engineering courses and a Department of Education. UCT was formally established as a university in 1918, on the basis of the Alfred Beit bequest and additional substantial gifts from mining magnates Julius Wernher and Otto Beit.
The University of Cape Town produced three Nobel Laureates - Sir Aaron Klug,
Professor Alan MacLeod Cormack, whose research endeavours were in the fields of
chemistry and physics, respectively, and more recently, acclaimed author JM
Coetzee. Apart from establishing itself as a leading research and teaching university, UCT was noted for its sustained opposition to apartheid, particularly in higher education.
This work supported by the NIH/Fogarty International Center under grant D43 TW00699