Issue 1
May 2012
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www.uwc.ac.za
Meet UWC's Chancellor, the eternal student
The University of the Western Cape (UWC) inaugurated its new Chancellor, The Most Reverend Dr Thabo Cecil Makgoba, on 28 February 2012. Archbishop Makgoba takes the reins from Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, who stepped down after having served the university for over 25 years. st
Dr Makgoba delivered an inaugural speech on Moral Leadership and the Task of Education for the 21 Century. He explained how his life had always been bound to education one way or the other, explaining how he moved from one academic institution to the next for most of his life, as “something of a perpetual student at heart”. “Despite this long connection with studying and teaching, the privilege of becoming the Chancellor of UWC prompted me to revisit two key questions,” said Makgoba. “First, what actually is the task of education? And what, in light of our answer, is the true vocation of a university within South Africa, in the unfolding years of the twenty-first century?” “The simplistic response,” he noted, “might be that the role of a university is to pursue and disseminate learning” (as outlined in UWC’s Institutional Operating Plan). But there's more to it than that: “What we need is beyond mere knowledge – understanding, perhaps. But the word which resonates best for me is ‘wisdom’.” The Chancellor acknowledged UWC’s transformation since it started out as a so-called ‘bush college’ over half a century ago. “The radical changes UWC has experienced over the decades mirror those of our nation. Indeed, this place has produced leaders who have been at the forefront in driving the best of these changes.” “Today,” he continued, “I am proud that we are one of the most diverse universities in South Africa – and this without compromising standards of excellence or quality of education.” He urged the university to keep up the good work, providing moral leadership for the country, the continent and the world.
UWC's new Chancellor, The Most Reverend Dr Thabo Cecil Makgoba, in fashionable formal wear.
Forever Young: Archbishop Makgoba is the youngest person ever to have been elected Archbishop of Cape Town. That may be one of the reasons he believes so strongly in the potential of the University’s young students.
Fuelling the future: PetroSA-UWC's new fuel research centre
South Africa’s first academic facility offering research on improving the quality of diesel was officially opened at UWC on 15 May by the Minister of Energy, Ms Dipuo Peters. The PetroSA Synthetic Fuels Innovation Centre (PFSIC) houses a pilot plant size reactor for the study of the conversion of olefins to distillate, which has proved to be an essential part of the intricate Gas-ToLiquids (GTL) process. PetroSA, South Africa’s National Oil Company and a world leader in the development of GTL technology, has provided funding to the value of R36 million to establish and operate the PSFIC at UWC's South African Institute for Advanced Materials Chemistry (SAIAMC), for an initial five-year period. The PSFIC team totals 27 staff members, including PhD-level researchers, technicians, research assistants and students. The SAIAMC has been designated by the Department of Science and Technology as a hub for the development of the Hydrogen Economy, and has a track record of world-class research and development to support the energy sector.
Vice-Chancellor Brian O’Connell and Minister of Energy Dipuo Peters declare the PSFIC open for business.
: UWC believes in preserving and learning from history: it's the only institution nationally that offers a postgraduate programme in Museum and Heritage Studies.
Uwc Takes Pride In ...
Offering a Holistic Student Experience
Our Teaching & Learning Focus
Our Relevant Research & Innovation
Producing & Attracting Excellent Talent
Sustaining Financial Stability
Growing Our Profile Internally & Externally
Sense-making Through Leadership Development
Molengraaff Dispute group visits (and debates) UWC A group of students from the University of Utrecht visited the University of the Western Cape’s (UWC) Law Faculty on 24 May 2012. The twenty students were members of the Molengraaff Dispuut, an association for high achievers in the field of Private Law. Every year they arrange an over-seas visit to a university of their choice; this year they chose UWC. The visitors were led on a tour of the University campus by students from the Law Faculty. They then attended a lecture on the foundations of South African Law, and on the impact of the Constitution on South African Property Law. But all that was just a warm-up for the main event: a debate with UWC law students. Specifically, they debated the interplay between freedom of expression and children's behaviour in the school context, with reference to the constitutional court case of Le Roux v. Dey, in which children were held liable for defaming the deputy headmaster of the school. By all accounts, it was a very lively debate, with strong views being expressed by both UWC and Utrecht students. But there were no hard feelings, with both groups agreeing that the experience provided a valuable opportunity to argue legal points and hone their debating skills.
Former Chancellor (and Archbishop) Desmond Tutu statue hangs out with the visiting debaters.
Molengraaff Dispuut students posing in front of UWC's Law Faculty building.
UWC law students and the Dispuut group getting to know each other.
UWC lecturers school the Dispuut high achievers on South African Law.
Uncontained: Opening the Past
UWC's Centre for Humanities Research is hosting – in conjunction with the City of Cape Town – Uncontained: Opening the Community Arts Project Archive, an exhibition running from 9 May to 18 June 2012 at the Art.b gallery in Bellville. In 2008, the CHR acquired the Community Arts Project (CAP) collection, a historic and important body of artworks consisting of over 4 000 paintings, prints, sculptures and drawings by various artists. The exhibit comprises a selection of prints (mainly linocuts) from this collection, from CAP's emergence as a community-based non-racial art initiative (considered transgressive by the Apartheid state) in 1977 through to its end three decades later. Pictures are often said to be worth a thousand words. UWC Rector and Vice-Chancellor Professor Brian O'Connell, speaking at the opening of the exhibition, pointed out that with just one painting, one can say a million words. And that especially now, in our changing world, art is one of the most interesting means of communication and self-expression.
: The Life Sciences Building fuses six departments, promoting transdisciplinary research on fresh water ecosystems, metagenomics, hydrogen power, animal anatomy, and more.
Professor Davison returns: discussing dying with dignity
The University of the Western Cape is glad to be able to welcome back Professor Sean Davison into the fold, after six months of being away from his research at the UWC Forensic DNA Lab – five of those months spent under house arrest in New Zealand. Davison was arrested and charged with attempted murder in October 2011, for mixing morphine (at her request) into his mother's glass of water in 2006, after having stayed with her in New Zealand while she suffered from lung cancer.
Vice-Chancellor Brian O'Connell welcomes back Prof Sean Davison.
On Friday 4 May, the UWC held a press conference where Davison discussed his experiences during his euthanasia trial and also during his time spent in detention. He also touched on the circumstances of his mother's death, speaking movingly of her colourful and adventurous life, her suffering with terminal cancer, and her decision to attempt to end her life with a hunger strike. He explained how he came to provide her with morphine, his arguments with his publisher about telling this story in his book, and his surprise that anybody could see what he'd done as attempted murder. He stands by what he did: “It is not a crime to help someone who's terminally ill to end their lives, if they have made that decision for themselves.”
Chairing the conference, Vice-Chancellor Prof Brian O'Connell and Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academics Prof Ramesh Bharuthram expressed sympathy and support for Davison's actions, and called for free debate and discussion on the subject of assisted death. “The problem with the truth is that there are many forms of truth, and it is not the University's job to establish what truth is. The University's job is to go on and ask questions.” To help move that debate forward, Davison has launched a petition on the DignitySA website for a euthanasia bill to be brought before Parliament. “This is a challenge to the whole of humankind,” he said. “South Africa has led the world before in this type of reform. I believe South Africa can lead the world in this very complex issue.”
UWC bids farewell to extreme scientist Don Cowan The University of the Western Cape’s Department of Biotechnology and the Institute for Microbial Biotechnology and Metagenomics (IMBM) recently held a farewell celebration for a great teacher and a first-rate researcher: Professor Don Cowan said goodbye to UWC after 11 years of sharing his skills and expertise with the staff and students at the University. Cowan arrived at UWC in 2001, and within that same year was promoted to Professor, and then to the Chair of Microbiology. He went on to establish ARCAM as a formal University Centre, was promoted to Senior Professor in 2004, and a year later was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa in 2005. As an avid researcher he has published over 140 papers, reviews and book chapters on the genetics and characteristics of microbes, and especially of extremophiles. In pursuit of these organisms, he has trawled the depths of the ocean, visited Antarctica, and been places most of us would rather not go. He will be continuing his researches and adventures at the University of Pretoria.
Prof Cowan and friends. From left: Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academics Prof Ramesh Bharuthram, IMBM Acting Director Dr Marla Tuffin, Prof Don Cowan, Vice-Chancellor Brian O'Connell and Acting Dean of the Natural Sciences Prof David Fisher.
Extreme Lifestyles: Extremophiles are unicellular organisms (some are bacteria, and some belong to their distant cousins, the archaea) that live and thrive under conditions that most other lifeforms would find unbearable – too hot, too cold, too salty, too acidic, and so on. They're found in deserts, in salt lakes, at underwater volcanoes, and even around radioactive waste.
: UWC's partnership with PetroSA has provided the resources to carry out research focused on increasing the efficiency of the conversion of olefins to diesel fuel and improving diesel quality.
Uwc Takes Pride In ...
Offering a Holistic Student Experience
Our Teaching & Learning Focus
Our Relevant Research & Innovation
Producing & Attracting Excellent Talent
Sustaining Financial Stability
Growing Our Profile Internally & Externally
Sense-making Through Leadership Development
Open Day opens doors to prospective students
Hordes of high school learners and their teachers flocked to UWC's three day Open Day at the Main Campus in Bellville from 10 to 12 May. The Open Day was free of charge, and allowed learners to find out more about the different study options available at the University. Faculty stalls displayed all the course possibilities and degree choices available, and UWC’s academics and admission staff were present to give advice about the study programmes available and how to make an application. Learners were exposed to many facets of campus life (especially those who took the time to wander around the cafeteria area and meet a few students). Amongst the most popular stalls were those dealing with Financial Aid and Student Development and Support (SDS): information desks about accommodation in residences, private accommodation, bursaries and loans to finance studies, facilities available for prospective students with disabilities, as well as support services dealt with endless questions with admirable patience. The learners were also eager to learn more information about the compulsory access tests that all prospective first year students must write, and about admission requirements for 2013. UWC staff desperately fending off hordes of eager pupils at Open Day.
LEDIMTALI: Improving mathematics education at schools The Local Evidence-Driven Improvement of Mathematics Teaching and Learning Initiative (LEDIMTALI) was launched at UWC's School of Public Health on Thursday 8 March. LEDIMTALI brings together mathematicians, mathematics educators and mathematics curriculum advisors with a vision to improve the teaching of mathematics at schools. The project is led by UWC Prof Cyril Julies, who holds the First Rand Foundation Chair in Mathematics Education in the Western Cape. Julies said the project aimed at providing opportunities for reflections on classroom-based teaching of mathematics, by designing and developing strategies to enhance ways of teaching mathematics. LEDIMTALI is to work towards increasing the number of learners taking up mathematics at Further Education and Training level and raising the achievement levels in Maths. This is intended to address the need for young people in South Africa to enter mathematically-based careers such as accounting, engineering and the natural sciences, actuarial science, forensics and many others. Teachers who attended the launch were pleased with the initiative, saying they hoped that the initiative – and the lessons learned and methods discussed there – would spread to other parts of the country as well.
The FET Institute’s involvement in national policy questions The Further Education and Training Institute (FETI) of UWC, based in Wynberg, has consistently engaged with the unfolding national policy processes concerning FET Colleges and the Post School sector. In April, the Institute hosted a seminar at UWC on the very topical Green Paper for Post-School Education and Training recently released by the DHET. FETI invited a wide range of stakeholders and participants included universities, FET colleges, private providers, SETA representatives and Provincial government roleplayers. FETI presented the key elements of the Green Paper and Prof Peliwe Lolwana from Wits University was invited to comment on the document, which made for lively discussion thereafter.
Northlink College graduates of the FETI articulation project with UWC celebrating their graduation.
: The South African national swim team will be training at UWC before they leave for the Olympic Games in London in July. The Turkish Olympic team took their turn to train at the UWC pool last year.
UWC's Olympic-sized pool gets a baby brother The University of the Western Cape will soon boast a new short course pool in a bid to host more national competitions. Work has already started on the additional feature to the Olympic-sized pool, which will be completed by September. The National Lottery has now been approached to assist with finances for further development. UWC has a successful reputation as three-time host venue for the Western Province Aquatic Championships, and a long-standing relationship with SwimSA, who nominated the university as a high performance centre. But with the new short course pool, UWC stands a chance to host national and international events. The new pool is the second part of a three-phased-development process to improve the facilities at the pool. In 2005 the 50m pool received its first make-over with an indoor facility that included a heated pool. And once the short course pool is completed, work will begin on the third and final phase of development: to upgrade the pool area’s toilets and office buildings.
Feel it...the IRB World Championships is here!
UWC will be in the international spotlight when we co-host (along with Stellenbosch University) the fifth International Rugby Board (IRB) Junior World Championships next month. From 4 June to 22 June, twelve under-20 teams from the world's top under-20 rugby nations, including South Africa, will battle it out for the Junior Championship crown. All eyes will be on the young host team, who received a visit from Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer at their last training camp in Langebaan before the big game. Meyer predicted that the team would do well at this year’s championship. Campus Protection Services will ensure minimal disruption of traffic flow inside campus as well as exit/entrance from/to campus during the tournament. Reserved tickets cost R50, while unreserved tickets will cost R25. Tickets can be bought at Computicket. And yes, this event will coincide with the UWC semester examination timetable (specifically on 4 June, 8 June and 12 June). Decisions, decisions...
School of hard knocks: Twelve rugby schools were invited to see the games, and take part in a coaching clinic where UWC rugby players offer a few helpful tips. Schools caught on camera with the most ‘gees’ will win a visit from the Springbok Sevens team. Schools that sell the most tickets will also be visited by SA’s Big Seven – the sports teams, not the big mammals – though come to think of it...
Five
: UWC's South African Herbal Science and Medicine Insitute (SAHSMI) leads a consortium hosting the International Centre for Indigenous Phytotherapy Studies, and is the only institute in the country accredited to offer research degrees in Herbal Sciences and Plant Medicines.
Uwc Takes Pride In ...
Offering a Holistic Student Experience
Our Teaching & Learning Focus
Our Relevant Research & Innovation
Producing & Attracting Excellent Talent
Sustaining Financial Stability
Six Growing Our Profile Internally & Externally
Sense-making Through Leadership Development
Infonomics 101: The UWC Online Project In 1960 the University of the Western Cape established its physical presence. Since then, the University has moved with the times, establishing a partial online presence in the form of the UWC website. In 2012 the university is working on establishing its presence more fully online through the UWC Online project. The UWC Online project is led by the Institutional Advancement office, in conjuction with the Information and Communication Services department and Intervate, a technology consulting company. It's aimed at enabling the university community and public at large to engage more directly with the institution online. This process will include the complete revamp of the current university website, faculty websites and those of other related entities of the university. The university will also be developing means with which it can more effectively use social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and others. This process will not only take into account the technology aspects but will also include a new approach to management of the university online environment. The establishment of the university online environment will be accompanied by new online governance policy that will govern online management within the university.
Online for the people: The UWC community is encouraged to participate in this process. For more information about the UWC Online Project, and to let us know what you think about the project or where you think it should be going, please visit <http://www.uwc.ac.za/infonomics>
Traditional medicines bring China and Africa together
In an effort to to strengthen cooperation and knowledge exchange between South African and Chinese traditional medicine practitioners, UWC hosted the two-day China-Africa Development Forum in Chinese Medicine from 24 to 25 March. UWC's School of Natural Medicine joined more than 200 Chinese health practitioners in contributing to the procedures, discussing a range of topics related to traditional medicine (or alternative medicine, as it's known in some parts of the world), including the safety and efficacy of traditional medicines in dealing with ulcers, treating HIV/AIDS and preventing miscarriages. Prof Hester Klopper, Dean of Community and Health Sciences, pointed out that seventy-five to eighty percent of people in the world use natural medicine, and have been doing so for a long while. That's part of the reason why the Faculty seeks to develop capacity for traditional medicine and position the University as a leader in traditional medicine research.
UWC MEDIA OFFICE Do you have any important UWC stories to share? Do you know of an event on campus that you'd like to see featured? Have you heard of a few UWC alumni who've done amazing things, and you think the world should know about it? Or maybe you have a few suggestions, comments or questions about something in this newsletter?
Whatever the case may be, the UWC Media Office would really like to hear from you. Just email us on ia@uwc.ac.za , call us on 021 959 3637, or drop by our offices.
CONTRIBUTORS Matthews Mfubu Nicolette Dirk Notukela Mzilikazi Olona Vika Yolanda Makosi Nicklaus Kruger Luthando Tyhalibongo