Issue 2
June 2012
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Peter de Villiers joins the UWC team The University of the Western Cape (UWC) proudly welcomes former Springbok rugby coach, Peter de Villiers, as the Director for Rugby and Sports Development. De Villiers’ expertise will not be confined to developing UWC’s sportsmen and women. His extended brief is to establish a UWC-based Resource Centre that will create a new generation of coaches, players, referees and administrators from local clubs and schools, as well as from UWC. Said De Villiers: “UWC has great facilities, and it is hoped that this programme will attract aspiring top players to join UWC both in lecture halls and on the field.” He went on to explain his move to the University: “This is my dream job. I am asked how one follows up on coaching the national side at international level. The answer is simple: by giving back and transforming sport at grassroots level; I get to do this at UWC and fulfill a lifelong ambition.”
UWC Rugby and Sports Development Director Peter de Villiers gets down to business.
Healthy change for Cape's higher education giants A multilateral agreement (MLA) signed on 29 May 2012 between the Western Cape’s four universities and the Western Cape Government will clarify the relationship between government and the universities that train health science workers including UWC. The MLA is an overarching agreement that covers a range of clarifying definitions, principles and processes that will govern the overall relationship between the Western Cape Department of Health and the four Higher Education institutions. “The agreement is of national significance because the health services are where national health and higher education must work together. This agreement is a bridge toward this essential cooperation,” said the Western Cape Minister of Health, Theuns Botha. Each university will sign its own bilateral agreement with the Western Cape Government. The Joint Agreement Governance Council (JAGC) will ensure equality in training facilities for the different universities, with the assistance of the Health Platform Committee (HPC) which will handle the allocation of the spaces for student training at the different facilities.
SKA: UWC looks to the heavens
The awarding of the major part of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project to the African bid on 25 May 2012 heralds a new era for African science and technology. Professor Ramesh Bharuthram, UWC Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic and Head of the Astronomy Desk at the Department of Science and Technology, puts it this way: “The SKA is the most ambitious radio telescope ever designed to help address some of the big questions in astronomy and astrophysics: How did the Universe originate? How do galaxies form and evolve? Is there life anywhere else in the Universe?” Astronomers at UWC are heavily involved in the SKA project. Professor Roy Maartens holds the SKA/DST Chair in Astrophysics. Professor Matt Jarvis is a SKA Visiting Professor and an internationally renowned radio astronomer. There are six SKA research fellows at UWC, as well as MSc and PhD students funded by the SKA. In fact, the astronomy group at UWC was started in 2008 when the SKA project funded a post for Professor Catherine Cress, who has conducted important work on galaxy evolution and cosmology.