The University also boasts one of the largest and most diverse groups of geoscientists in Africa. The university has its roots in the mining industry, as do Johannesburg and the Witwatersrand in general. Wits Centenary - University of the Witwatersrand University of Witwatersrand : Rankings, Fees & Courses Details | Top Wits established the first clinical trial in South Africa and on the continent for a Covid-19 vaccine in 2020, one of many firsts in our 100 year history. So far, Wits has produced 4 Nobel Laureates, 91 Rhodes Scholars, 4 National Planning Commissioners, 32 Mandela Rhodes Scholars, and 2 Chief Justices. In what originated as a fundraiser to beat a Guinness World Record for the number of participants in a pillow fight, Witsies now gather on the Library Lawns every September, armed with pillows to pummel each other in a riotous explosion of feathers, fabric and foam. Copyright guide for students | Jisc At only 32 years of age, Wits alumna Dr Viwe Mtwesi owns a medical tourism company, has received a Mandela Medallion Gold Medal, and is the youngest black female cardiologist in the country:. Find hotels in Witwatersrand (Wits) University - Agoda Copyright 2020-2023 - University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Topics range from ethics and energy poverty, to unravelling the mystery around stillbirths and saving lives in the depths of SAs mines. Wits offers a range of services to the community. The medical library and the administrative offices of the Faculty of Medicine moved to a new building in Esselen Street, Hillbrow during 1964. Almost the only representative of the writers of real comedies is Lyly. University of the Witwatersrand | World University Rankings | THE [26] 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 from registering for the new academic year. [15] In 1976, Lawson's Corner in Braamfontein was acquired and renamed University Corner. Kgomotso Malatjie, a first-year Wits student from the rural province of Limpopo who is the first in her family to go to university, shares her relief. Description. Internationally distinguished for research, high academic standards and commitment to social justice in Africa and beyond. 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 in 2000.[20][21]. 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 in Lusaka, revealed that to many in the surrounding disadvantaged communities, there was a perception of Wits as an elitist institution dominated by white interests. He was elected to the Council of the University in 1989 and awarded an honorary doctorate from Wits in 1997. [32] West Campus is home to David Webster Hall (female), Barnato Hall and West Campus Village (both mixed).[33]. (c) The style was also heroic. [28], 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 inaccuracies, before being accepted by the State Herald of South Africa in 1972. As a student you will usually be the copyright owner of original works that you produce, including music, creative arts, literary works and you may want to control further use of your work. [citation needed], 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 was the first SA university to have a nuclear accelerator, to study radar, to have a computer, to study building materials, to produce a systematic climatological atlas of southern Africa and to achieve a successful graft of plastic cornea. Each year, a Rag Queen was elected and, after the parade, a Rag Ball was held in the Examinations Hall. Sager, Jenny "Melnikoff, Ed., Robert Greene", Edward Gieskes: Writing Robert Greene: Essays on England's First Notorious Professional Writer (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008), "The University standard of judgment. Wits SRC re-opens offices. As a World Heritage Site, responsibility for the site shifted from the university to the government of Gauteng Province, with the provincial government becoming the designated management authority responsible for developing and protecting the site. The former Chancellor of the University, Dikgang Moseneke, is the former Deputy Chief Justice of South Africa. He was a leading mathematics educator who joined Wits in 1978 as a Senior Tutor in the then Department of Mathematics, serving as a role-model for about a decade. These included the implementation of early retirement and voluntary severance packages to minimise retrenchments. The University Wits is a phrase used to name a group of late 16th-century English playwrights and pamphleteers who were educated at the universities ( Oxford or Cambridge) and who became popular secular writers. [1], 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. [4], 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. 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. Wits looked anew to the "Open Universities" statement of 1957, to which the University of the Western Cape now also added its voice. The University had, at that stage, 6 faculties (Arts, Science, Medicine, Engineering, Law and Commerce), 37 departments, 73 members of academic staff and little more than 1 000 students. [1], Finally, on 1 March 1922, the University College, Johannesburg, was granted full university status after being incorporated as the University of the Witwatersrand. Engineering students gather early in the morning on the first day of September each year and prepare breakfast to celebrate the arrival of spring. Wits University is a South Africa-based educational institution that offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree programs in disciplines such as science and law. Our researchers and innovators are collaborating to leverage the next level of discovery research. LinkedIn As the number of black students increased at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa in the 1980s, township struggles spread onto the campus and management came. Research - Wits University 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 university underwent a significant expansion programme in the 1980s. Nowadays Skiffyskofbaas Day is known as the more politically correct Miners Day. 37,116 views Mar 1, 2016 338 Dislike Share Save Wits University OFFICIAL 31K subscribers On the 14, 15, 16, 17 September 2015, the Wits Centre for. University of the Witwatersrand - Company Profile and News Prominent members of this group were Christopher Marlowe, Robert Greene, and Thomas Nashe from Cambridge, and John Lyly, Thomas Lodge . Adolphus William Ward in The Cambridge History of English Literature (1932) has a chapter on "The Plays of the University Wits", in which he argues that a "pride in university training which amounted to arrogance" was combined with "really valuable ideas and literary methods". Over a third of the student body comprises postgraduate students. There are over 100 vocational schools in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Witsies believe that if one of the purple flowers falls on your head, and you havent started studying for your year-end exams, then its probably too late and youre doomed to failure. The Milner Park showgrounds were acquired in 1984 from the Witwatersrand Agricultural Society and renamed West Campus. 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. Wits University has five faculties and 33 schools. That same year, the Medical School's new clinical departments were opened. We are committed to academic and research excellence. The same cannot be said for Wits, which has seen its usually favourable ranking decline in the past 12 months. There are over 80 universities and colleges (for a full list of colleges in Ho Chi Minh City, see List of colleges in Ho Chi Minh City) with over 400,000 students. Government funding for the university was cut, with funds originally meant for Wits often being channelled to the more conservative Afrikaans universities instead. With a strongly entrenched "[c]olonial 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".[17]. Explore CWUR's list of the best universities and top colleges in South Africa. From the start, it embraced a philosophy of non-discrimination on the basis of race, which led . For this reason, the university's admission policies promote diversity and Black Economic Empowerment by admitting students from a wide range of backgrounds. Bloomberg Anywhere Remote Login. Who owns universities typically, or does anyone or entity own them? During the period between the two world wars severe financial restrictions were imposed upon the University. 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. Nevertheless, student numbers were quite impressive - in 1939, 2 544 students enrolled; that grew to 3 100 in 1945. In collaboration with 702, the series features Wits academics who are interrogating the challenges we face today and finding solutions. 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. Which leads me to ask: "Who owns Wits' student movement?" . On 12 October 1960 the first full-sized planetarium in Africa, and . The country's first dental hospital and school was established by the University. For the professional club associated with the university, see, USSA Football National Club Championships record, USSA FOTBALL [sic] CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS 2015 TOURNAMENT STANDINGS (March 29, 2016), University Sport South Africa, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wits_University_F.C.&oldid=1153132930, This page was last edited on 4 May 2023, at 11:47. There are 42 sport clubs and many cultural opportunities in the form of over 60 student societies, the Wits Theatre, art galleries, concert hall and 7museums. In 2019 the Actuarial Societyof South Africa welcomed 52 new Fellow Actuaries into the profession, of whom 17 were Wits graduates, the most from any one university, also the most demographically diverse in South Africa. During the Second World War members of the University staff took an active part in the original development and construction of radar. Internal debates about, among other things, the international academic boycott of South Africa and the role of academics in the anti-apartheid struggle led to increasing division within the university. The historic East Campus is primarily the home of the faculties of Science and Humanities, as well as the University Council, Senate and management. Manage Products and Account Information. In 1969 the Ernest Oppenheimer Residence was formally opened in Parktown. This resulted in the fairly rapid construction of the William Cullen Library; opened in 1934. At only 32 years - Wits - University of the Witwatersrand | Facebook Best Universities in South Africa in 2021-2022 | CWUR [2] It was left to "the actor-playwrights who, rising from very humble beginnings, but possessing in their fellow Shakespeare a champion unparalleled in ancient and modern times, borrowed the improvements of the university wits, added their own stage knowledge, and with Shakespeare's aid achieved the master drama of the world. [48] In 1972 the Gertrude Posel Gallery was established on the ground floor of Senate House on East Campus. The gender composition of the university is shown below. The period between 1947 and the 1980s was marked by considerable growth - student numbers increased rapidly to 6 275 in 1963, 10 600 in 1975 and 16 400 by 1985. [79], The racial composition of the university's student population is as follows:[4]. 101 of 1997)[30] and in the Statute of the University of the Witwatersrand,[31] the university is governed by Council. The University Wits, "with Marlowe at their head, made the blank verse line for dramatic purposes, dismissed, cultivated as they were, the cultivation of classical models, and gave English tragedy its Magna Charta of freedom and submission to the restrictions of actual life only". ENTER & WIN R1 000 in cash! Wits University officially opens for the year. Building began at Milner Park on a site donated to the University by the Johannesburg municipality. Bridging the gap between mining and people The unveiling of the Wits Sibanye-Stillwater Innovation bridge represents an enduring investment in human capital and future engineering skills. 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. These policies enable the university to assemble a diverse student body that reflects the demographic profile of South Africa's Gauteng 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. Humour, when it is brought in at all, is coarse and immature. 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". 2016Senate Houserenamed toSolomon MahlanguHouse.The renaming of the spaceisin commemoration of struggle stalwart Solomon Mahlangu.Read about the institutional naminghere. [49] 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. 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. [1] Saintsbury argues that the "rising sap" of dramatic creativity in the 1580s showed itself in two separate "branches of the national tree": In the first place, we have the group of university wits, the strenuous if not always wise band of professed men of letters, at the head of whom are Lyly, Marlowe, Greene, Peele, Lodge, Nash, and probably (for his connection with the universities is not certainly known) Kyd. SOAPIE QUIZ: How well do you know Gqeberha: The Empire? However, many scholars believe that the pamphlet was in fact written by Henry Chettle, a writer listed by Saintsbury as one of the "irregular band of outsiders" supposedly resented by the Wits. Software Updates. Discover the top universities and best colleges in South Africa in 2021-2022. University Wits - eNotes.com Stanford comes in second, with MIT and Berkeley also placing in the top five. The raids were a fun way to rile the opposition ahead of an important match. These protests were sustained as more and more civil liberties were withdrawn and peaceful opposition to apartheid was suppressed. The University's scholars have also greatly advanced the theory of human origin and evolution. Wits University's primary competitors include UJ, UCT, Rhodes University and 11 more. 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. Who were the University Wits? - Let knowledge come retrieved Wits FC's home ground is the Bidvest Stadium, located on the university's East Campus in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. In 1925, the Prince of Wales (the future Edward VIII) officially opened Central Block (which includes the Great Hall). University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City And there are many more such examples. Within the Wits Management Campus are the Ernest Oppenheimer Hall (male residence) and the mixed Parktown Village. Witwatersrand | Gold Mining, Urbanization & Geology | Britannica Info/Definitions Wits IP Policy SA Copyright Law Authors' Rights Wits Brochures The Ball, usually held at the Wanderers Hall, saw a host of high-profile guests mingle with recent graduates dressed in their finest attire, in the hope of being mentioned in the local newspaper. We are situated in Johannesburg, the economic and industrial heartland of the African continent. Plans for a new building to house the projector were first drawn up in 1958, and construction began in 1959. The Wartenweiler Library primarily serves the Faculty of Humanities. The Johannesburg Planetarium was the first full-sized planetarium in Africa and the second in the Southern Hemisphere. Our offices are for administrative purposes only, no visitors will be accepted without an appointment. Wits is the home of four Nobel Prize Winners: Nelson Mandela (Peace), Sydney Brenner (Medicine), Nadine Gordimer (Literature) and Aaron Klug (Chemistry). The Medical School was moved to new premises on York Street in Parktown on 30 August 1982. In the second, we have the irregular band of outsiders, players and others, who felt themselves forced into literary and principally dramatic composition, who boast Shakespeare as their chief, and who can claim as seconds to him not merely the imperfect talents of Chettle, Munday, and others whom we may mention in this chapter, but many of the perfected ornaments of a later time. 2017Central BlockrenamedtoRobert Sobukwe Block.The renaming commemorated Robert Sobukwes service to the University and his contribution to fighting apartheid. The Uni of Johannesburg, UKZN, and Unisa are all grouped together in mid-table, whereas the University of The Free State props up the rest in ninth position a fair distance away from the chasing pack. An aerial view of the University s Milner Park campus, 1930. The Bernard Price Institute of Geophysical Research was placed under the Union of South Africa's defence ministry, and was involved in important research into the use of radar. Wits scientists have been contributing to the palaeo-sciences record for almost a century. The Chancellor of the university is the ceremonial head of the university who, in the name of the university, confers all degrees. Trng i hc Quc T - International University In 2000, former President Thabo Mbeki asked scholars at Wits Rock Art Research Institute for an indigenous rockart image and mottofor South Africas coat of arms. Wits was the first South African university to have a nuclear accelerator, to have a computer, to study building materials and early Afrikaans, to produce a systematic climatological atlas of Southern Africa and to achieve a successful graft of plastic cornea. WITS - About WITS - World Bank This Faculty currently offers various undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in accountancy, economics, management, and law. Expansion into Braamfontein also took place. [36] The heritage objects are Jan Smuts' study, housed in Jan Smuts House,[37] and the Paul Loewenstein Collection of rock art. The faculty is based in the Chamber of Mines Building on West Campus, which houses the faculty office and the Engineering Library. In fact, Wits is home to 381 NRF-rated researchers and 400 award-winning researchers, who regularly contribute new research in their fields and have a direct impact on policy and industry. The facility wont be too pleased to learn who has replaced them at the summit of the log, either. In the 2019/2020 Centre for World University Rankings (CWUR) Wits is ranked 254 globally (top 1.3% in the world). There were also clandestine raids between the two universities, mainly involving students living in residence. In 1968 the neighbouring farm, Swartkrans, also a source of archaeological material, was purchased. Wits celebrates in Times Square Wits alumni in the US gathered in Times Square in New York to celebrate the University's 100th birthday. In this connexion it is to be noted that the best medium for such expression was blank verse, which was sufficiently elastic to bear the strong pressure of these expansive methods. Alumni Relations - University of the Witwatersrand - LinkedIn We are home to 56 research entities, 12 donor-sponsored research chairs, 30 South African Research Chairs, 6 Centres of Excellence, and 434 National Research Foundation-rated researchers. [10] The Johannesburg municipality donated a site in Milner Park, north-west of Braamfontein, to the new institution as its campus and construction began the same year, on 4 October. Contact Alumni Relations http://web.wits.ac.za/Alumni/Contact+Us/ Update your Alumni record http://web.wits.ac.za/alumni/updateyourdetails.htm About Wits Alumni Relations - connecting you to. A World-Class University Located in the Economic Hub of Africa. [1], 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. Skiffy translates loosely to menial worker (skivvy), while skofbaas refers to a shift boss. 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. [19] Wits management did, however, initiate programmes to ameliorate some of the negative effects of Wits 2001. This page is not available in other languages. In 1925 the Prince of Wales officially opened the Central Block. The basin comprises a thick sequence of rocks known as Witwatersrand Supergroup, which consists of the lower West Rand Group and the upper Central Rand Group. Facts and Figures 2021/2022 Wits Today Interesting Facts about Wits Academic rankings After many festive nights spent decorating their floats, students would take to the streets of Johannesburg in their finest fancy dress, parading through town and showing off their fabulous floats in an attempt to win the award for best float. 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. List of universities in Ho Chi Minh City. Not condoned by the University, this risque tradition of Knockando Residence students running naked through Parktown to visit the womens residences after imbibing Courage Juice has endured for decades. [51] The university also has a wide range of research entities including 10 national Centres of Excellence.[4]. (b) Heroic themes needed heroic treatment: great fullness and variety; splendid descriptions, long swelling speeches, the handling of violent incidents and emotions. Equivalent to top 10 in Canada and Australia, top 30 in the UK and top 65 in the EU and US. Edward Albert in his History of English Literature (1979) argues that the plays of the University Wits had several features in common: (a) There was a fondness for heroic themes, such as the lives of great figures like Mohammed and Tamburlaine. [1] It was desegregated once again, prior to the abolition of apartheid, in 1990. The planetarium finally opened on 12 October 1960. University of the Witwatersrand on The Conversation 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. In the same year the clinical departments in the new Medical School were opened.