University of Cape Town

Sarah Baartman Hall and Memorial Plaza, the focal point Upper Campus.

Hiddingh Hall Library on Hiddingh Campus in Gardens, Cape Town.

The main teaching campus, known as Upper Campus, is located on the Rhodes Estate on the slopes of Devil's Peak. This campus contains, in a relatively compact site, the faculties of Science, Engineering, Commerce, and Humanities (except for the arts departments), as well as Smuts Hall and Fuller Hall residences. Upper Campus is centered on Sarah Baartman Hall, the location for graduation and other ceremonial events, as well as many examinations. The original buildings and layout of Upper Campus were designed by JM Solomon and built between 1928 and 1930. Since that time, many more buildings have been added as the university has grown. Upper Campus is also home to the main library, The Chancellor Oppenheimer library which holds the majority of the University's 1.3 million volume collection.

Contiguous with Upper Campus, but separated from it by university sports fields and the M3 expressway, are the Middle and Lower Campuses. These campuses, which are spread through the suburbs of Rondebosch, Rosebank and Mowbray, contain the Law faculty, the South African College of Music, the School of Economics, most of the student residences, most of the university administrative offices, and various sporting facilities. The state of the art artificial grass soccer field has been approved by FIFA for training for World Cup teams.[23] The Upper, Middle and Lower Campuses together are often referred to as the "main campus".

The Faculty of Health Sciences is located on the Medical School campus next to the Groote Schuur Hospital in Observatory. The Fine Arts and Drama departments are located on the Hiddingh Campus in central Cape Town. The University's original building, now known as the Egyptian Building, on the Hiddingh campus, was built in the Egyptian Revival style. The only other campus built in this style was the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia in the United States. The UCT Graduate School of Business is located on the Breakwater Lodge Campus at the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront.

The Baxter Theatre Centre, located on the Lower Campus, is part of the University of Cape Town; it is also the second largest performing arts complex in Cape Town, after the Artscape Theatre Centre. It has three venues:

• the 665-seat Main Theatre
• the 638-seat Concert Hall, with a Von Beckerath organ
• the 172-seat Golden Arrow Studio

For his contribution of the tract of land which the campus was founded on, a bronze statue of Cecil Rhodes was erected in 1934 on the Upper Campus, overlooking the university's rugby fields. The statue was removed in April 2015 following pressure from student groups due to its representation of South Africa's colonialist apartheid past and the university's inadequate representation of black students, faculty, and staff.

A view of Upper Campus, looking west from the rugby fields that separate Upper Campus from Middle Campus, with Devil's Peak in the background.

The central section of the Chancellor Oppenheimer Library.

The university's endowment (the financial capital and investment funds on which it can draw to carry out its work)[48] is deposited with the UCT Foundation (a legally independent nonprofit organisation) and it is managed by the Investment Office.[49] Through the Distinguishing UCT fundraising campaign, the university is trying to raise its endowment. As of 2019, its designated endowment stands at R2.5 billion and its undesignated endowment stands at R676 million with R133 million raised for infrastructure projects (bringing the total undesignated endowment to R809 million which the university aims to increase to R1 billion).[49]

There have been several campaigns at the university to divest its endowment. Fossil Free UCT was formally established in 2015 as a campaign by environmental activism lobbying groups and student organisations, most notably the Green Campus Initiative compel UCT to divest from fossil fuel companies which resulted in a non-binding resolution passed by UCT's Convocation in 2017 to support the divestment.[50] Student lobby groups, most notably the Palestinian Solidarity Front and the SRC called on the university's management to divest from Israeli companies and organisations working in the Palestinian Occupied Territories (among other demands), which, in the end, the university refused to do.[51]

The university's income comes from a combination of government grants, tuition fees, donations, investment and research income. In the 2017/2018 financial year, the university received R1.415 billion in state subsidies, R1.428 billion in tuition fees and R539 million in other income. R1.2 billion was committed to student financial aid for both undergraduate and postgraduate students from the University, the government through the NSFAS scheme and the university's partners and donors.[40]

As of 2016, there were 29,074 students enrolled (18,421 undergraduates and 10,653 postgraduates) and 4,542 staff were employed (1,179 academic and 3,363 professional, administrative, support and service staff).[52]

The UCT Employment Equity Plan April (2010 to 2015) indicated moderate but consistent changes in the demographic makeup of the staff body. The five-year plan specified specific targets ranging from between about 5% to 10% adjustments in the representation of SA black staff. According to the plan the staff makeup would have changed by 2015 by achieving either parity or more SA black staff than SA white in all categories other than senior lecturer and professor positions.[53]

UCT spokesperson Elijah Moholola noted that, in 2017, UCT employed 45 white professors, 38 black African, Cape Coloured or Indian South African professors, 67 foreign national professors and 7 who did not disclose their race.[54]

UCT had 36 different sports clubs in 2003, including team sports, individual sports, extreme sports and martial arts.[57]

The University's sports teams, in particular the rugby union team, are known as the "Ikey Tigers" or the "Ikeys". The "Ikey" nickname originated in the 1910s as an anti-semitic epithet applied to UCT students by the students of Stellenbosch University, because of the supposed large number of Jewish students at UCT.[58] Stellenbosch is UCT's traditional rugby opponent; an annual "Intervarsity" match is played between the two universities.[59] The University of Cape Town Football Club also known as the "Ikeys Warriors" is the main team for association football (soccer), representing the university at tournaments such as Varsity Football.

Looking south on the north end of University Avenue on Upper Campus.

As of 2007 there were more than 80 student societies at UCT, falling into five categories:[60]

• Academic societies for those interested in a particular field of study or studying a particular topic: The most prominent of these include the History and Current Affairs Society (HCA), the Space and Astronomy Society (SpaceSoc, also a SEDS South Africa chapter), the United Nations Association of South Africa (UNASA), and the Students for Law and Social Justice (SLSJ).
• Political societies, including branches of the youth wings of national political parties such as the South African Students Congress (SASCO), the Democratic Alliance Students Organisation (DASO), and the African National Congress Youth League.
• Religious societies, some of which are associated with religious denominations or local places of worship.
• National/cultural societies for students from particular countries or particular ethnic backgrounds.
• Special interest societies (such as RainbowUCT, the university's LGBTI society, UCT Mountain & Ski Club, UCT Ballroom and Latin dancing) for those interested in various activities or issues.

In addition to the plethora of student societies, there are several student organisations dedicated to the development of communities surrounding the University in the Cape Metropolitan Area. Some of the biggest include: SHAWCO, Ubunye and RAG.[61] Recently, several students movements have developed, such as the Green Campus Initiative.

The University of Cape Town is the most prestigious African university according to several rankings. It achieved a rank of 198 in the 2019 QS World University Rankings,[63] a rank of 156 in the 2019 Times Higher Education World University Rankings,[64] and a rank of 201–300 in the Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities,[62] making it the highest-ranked African university in these rankings.

The university's faculties are renowned, especially its faculties of Commerce, Law and Medicine, which have appeared in the top 100 faculties internationally. For example, its Law Faculty achieved a global rank of 40 in the 2014 QS World University Rankings by Subject.[63]

UCT is a member of the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN), the Association of African Universities, the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the Cape Higher Education Consortium, Higher Education South Africa, the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU), the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) and the International Association of Universities.

The Faculty of Law is a member of the Law Schools Global League (LSGL).

J. M. Coetzee, twice awarded the Booker Prize and awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature, read mathematics and was admitted to the degree of Master of Arts at the University of Cape Town.

UCT alumni have achieved prominent careers and become noteworthy academics in their own right, gaining notoriety and acclaim for their accomplishments and actions. In academia, many alumni have become NRF A-rated researchers, members and fellows of prominent academic societies such as the Royal Society of London and the Academy of Science of South Africa and have pursued academic careers in prestigious institutions of higher learning such as, but not limited to, the University of Oxford and Harvard University. Others such as Mamphele Ramphele as Vice Chancellor have become senior leaders of UCT itself.

Some have been appointed as ministers in the Cabinet of South Africa, have served as justices of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and have served as leaders and representatives of international organisations. Others such as Mark Shuttleworth have become founders and heads of major international corporations and donors of the university. Some alumni are memorialised by the university through the naming of initiatives such as the Kelly Capstick-Dale Award for Student Leadership and the naming of areas and buildings on campus such as the Plaza on Chemistry Mall named for anti-Apartheid activist Cissie Gool and the primary building of the Department of English Language and Literature named for Archibald Campbell Mzolisa Jordan. For a larger albeit inexhaustive list of notable alumni see this page.

The university's faculty are highly recognised at national and international level for their research and career achievements. The National Research Foundation of South Africa rates researchers and academics according to the quality of their research output in four categories. As of 2019, 35 staff are A-rated, that being they are internationally recognised leaders in their fields.[7] These are 30% of the A-rated researchers recognised by the NRF, making UCT, by far, the university with the highest number of such researchers.[40] 6 researchers are recognised as P-rated, that being they have potential to become leaders in their fields.[68] As of 2019, 15% of South Africa's total NRF-rated researchers (about 524) are employed or associated with UCT.[40] For a comprehensive and up-to-date list of B, Y and C-rated researchers, see this site.

As of 2019, 19% of South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) research chairs (about 42 academics) are held by UCT employed or associated researchers.[40] 88 members of faculty are members of the Academy of Sciences of South Africa. Staff members have gone on to occupy positions in government such as Minister of Trade and Industry, Ebrahim Patel, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor,[69] and former Premier of the Western Cape, Helen Zille. Others have achieved international success such as former Vice Chancellor, Mamphele Ramphele, who served as the Vice President for External Affairs of the World Bank. For a larger albeit inexhaustive list of former and current notable UCT faculty and staff, see this page.

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  Tuberculosis researchers working in a Bio-safety Level 3 Lab at the University of Cape Town. The Institute of Infectious Disease is noted for its work on this disease.
  The Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics is an international centre for research in the fields of cosmology and topology.
• The Centre for Rhetoric Studies, the only one of its kind on the African Continent (director: Philippe-Joseph Salazar).
• The Department of Physics is home to the UCT-CERN research centre, which is partially responsible for the software design of the High Level Trigger component of the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, as well as other activities related to ALICE.
• The Department of Electrical Engineering is involved in the development of technology for the Karoo Array Telescope (KAT). KAT is a precursor to the Square Kilometer Array, a proposed International project to build the world's largest radio telescope by 2020. Research groups in RF design and digital design contribute to the RF front-end and digital back-end of the KAT project.
• The Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (IIDMM)[70] is engaged in research on candidate tuberculosis vaccines, and is developing candidate HIV vaccines matched to the South African epidemic.
• The OpenUCT Initiative[71] is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and works to make UCT's research, teaching and learning materials openly available online. Major research projects include the African Climate Development Initiative (ACDI) pilot curation project, Digital Scholarship in Emerging Knowledge Domains and Open Data in the Governance of South African Higher Education and Scholarly Communication in Africa (SCAP)
• The Department of Archaeology has found some of the oldest evidence of art and abstract thought in the world. Specifically, engrained ostrich eggshell water containers dated to 60,000 years ago[72]
• The African Centre for Cities is one of the few research organisations focusing on urbanism in Africa.[73]
• On 21 September 2020 the new Khoi and San Centre was launched, with an undergraduate degree proramme planned to be rolled out in coming years. The centre will support and consolidate this collaborative work on research commissions on language (including Khoekhoegowab), sacred human remains, land and gender.[74]

A debate at UCT over the removal of a statue of Cecil Rhodes spawned Rhodes Must Fall movement. The FeesMustFall movement, which began at Wits and spread to UCT, was inspired by the Rhodes Must Fall protests.

The university was the shooting location of the 2019 film Critters Attack! where it was called as Leroy College and the 2008 film Disgrace.

The university was the shooting location of Netflix movies The Kissing Booth and The Kissing Booth 2 and the 2020 Netflix series Blood & Water.[81] The Smuts Hall residence served as the grounds and building for the show's fictional Parkhurst College.

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  View of Memorial Plaza on Upper Campus from the columns of the Sarah Baartman Hall.
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  The Oracle Fountain next to the Department of Mathematics Building; inspired by the I Ching trigrams on the Taoist sun disc.
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  Fuller Hall, a student residence on Upper Campus built in 1928.
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  The rugby fields that separate the Upper Campus and Middle Campus.
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  The M3 highway that separates the Upper Campus and Middle Campus; a tunnel beneath the highway connects the two campuses.
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  The Japonica Walk, a footpath that connects the Upper, Middle and Lower Campuses; it is lined with various flora, including japonica flowers and oak trees.
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  The Japonica Walk, with a view towards the Summer House Pavilion.
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  The Summer House Pavilion is popular with students for picnics etc. It was built in c. 1760, making it one of the oldest buildings in South Africa. A nearby tunnel connects the Upper and Middle Campuses.
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  The Woolsack Building; it was a refuge for writers and artists, and also where Rudyard Kipling spent his summers between 1900 and 1908.
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  The famous steps on Upper Campus leading up to the Sarah Baartman Hall, which are nicknamed the "Jammie steps".
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  The Jagger Library, which holds rare books & special collections.
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  View from the Chancellor Oppenheimer Library.
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  Entrance to the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology.
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  The Student Housing and Residence Life Building.
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  The Breakwater Lodge, which currently houses the UCT Graduate School of Business.
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  A lecture theatre in the Leslie Social Science Building (Faculty of Humanities).

• Centre for Curating the Archive
• List of universities in South Africa
• Education in South Africa
• Chancellor of the University of Cape Town
• Open access in South Africa and List of South African open access repositories

• Official website
• Statute of the University of Cape Town, Government Notice No. 1199, 20 September 2002.
• Southern African University
• UCT OpenContent - Open Educational Resource website

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