As UCT continues to reflect on its teaching credentials, the annual Distinguished Teacher Awards (DTA) serve as a timely reminder that often the university gets it right. Recently, the university celebrated, at the annual DTA dinner, the teaching of three academics: Professor John Higgins of the Department of English Literature, Dr Jeremy Wanderer of the Department of Philosophy, and Dr Zenda Woodman of the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology. Read more ...

On 29 November, members of the UCT community, including Vice-Chancellor Dr Max Price, joined delegates at conference hosted at UCT by the Higher Education HIV/AIDS Programme (HEAIDS) to write messages as part of a global World AIDS Day campaign. It is estimated that globally 33.3 million people have HIV. Read more ...

Two UCT researchers will lead major new projects into rheumatic heart disease and the establishment of an Africa-wide bioinformatics network, part of the newly founded Human Heredity and Health in Africa Consortium (H3Africa). Read more ...

Professor Richard Calland, director of UCT's Democratic Governance Rights Unit (DGRU), has been appointed to the World Bank's Independent Access to Information Appeals Board. The board, consisting of three persons, includes the former Scottish Information Commissioner, Kevin Dunion. Read more ...

As speaker after speaker made clear at its annual report-back meeting, held on 26 November, UCT is a major stakeholder in the operations of the Groote Schuur Community Improvement District (GSCID) and Residential Security Initiative (RSI). Notably Anthony Davies, GSCID CEO, and Western Cape Premier Helen Zille hailed the university for taking the lead in these initiatives, particularly in the establishment of the GSCID and its funding of the RSI. Read more ...

Higher Education HIV/AIDS Programme (HEAIDS), a division of Higher Education South Africa (HESA), is holding a conference at UCT, titled Researching the Applied and Applying the Research, which runs from 28 to 30 November. UCT's HIV/AIDS Institutional Co-ordination Unit (HAICU) is responsible for co-ordinating the UCT policy, curriculum and co-curriculum response, and has had a number of papers accepted by peer review on several relevant topics. Read more ...

UCT is deeply saddened by the death of distinguished academic and politician Professor Jakes Gerwel (66) following a heart operation earlier this week. Vice-Chancellor Dr Max Price said: "Professor Gerwel gave us an example of true leadership, by living to serve and build up others, and this remained his priority even as he took up all his distinguished posts and achievements. Read more ...

It's become a tenet of scientific research that collaboration is crucial, but even more so when the research is aimed at developing drugs to combat cardiovascular disease, ranked among the leading causes of death in South Africa. Professors Ed Sturrock of UCT and Ravi Acharya of the University of Bath are long-standing collaborators in exactly this field, having worked together since 1995. Read more ...