FNB UCT's title defence got off to the worst possible start with a 10-38 loss to the University of the Free State's Shimlas in the opening round of the 2012 Varsity Cup on Monday, 6 February. The Ikeys were punished for a litany of missed chances and unforced errors as the players from Bloemfontein outscored them by four tries to two. Read more...

UCT orientation headed down the homestretch with O-Week kicking off on Monday with the plaza baraza, and a whole string of side events. Despite the mercury pushing unbearable, there was a pool of cool societies and clubs strutting their stuff to potential new members. Read more...

Grants from the US's National Institutes of Health (NIH) are sought-after treasures, but the application procedures are exacting. To improve the success rate and management of grant applications from Africa, the NIH is in 2012 funding a series of training workshops. Two of these will involve UCT and three other African universities - Mbarara University in Uganda, Moi University in Kenya and the University of Zambia (UNZA). Read more...

In what's now become business as usual, the UCT GSB's full-time MBA programme has yet again moved up the ranks (by six places to 54th spot) in the Financial Times (FT) of London's Global MBA Top 100 released in January. This is the eighth consecutive year the school has been listed. Read more...

The Parents' Orientation events are meant to assure parents and care-givers that their children will be in good hands at UCT. This assurance carries more weight when it comes from a senior student like Mike Ramothwala, Students' Representative Council (vice-president: external). Ramothwala was addressing this year's event for out-of-town parents on 31 January. (The first Parents' Orientation, for local parents, was held on 28 January.) Read more...

UCT welcomed thousands of students into its midst on 1 February as the bulk of the university's orientation programmes kicked off. After the humanities and commerce faculties had set the tone with their programmes last week, the majority of the expected 4,200 new first-year students got their first taste of life as a UCT student today. Read more...

There was never a doubt that they would choose the same university, they say. They've been best friends since grade 8 and shared the same classes at school; the KZN double act even went on to earn seven As each in matric. Actuarial science first-year student Nomvuso Maitin and BSc mathematical science first-year student Anthea Thompson now have yet another thing in common; they're residence roomies in UCT's Graça Machel Hall. Read more...

Health educators are now set to improve their skills, thanks to a postgraduate diploma in health professional education, launched by UCT in January. Read more...

Though there were a few watershed moments, COP17 was, in many ways, a success. So said a panel of experts at a feedback session titled What happened at COP17? Hear the inside story, held at UCT on 24 January. The panel discussion on the showcase 17th Conference of the Parties, held in Durban at the end of 2011, was convened by UCT's newly established African Climate & Development Initiative (ACDI) and the Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership and Sustainable Energy Africa. Read more...

The only thing certain about the future of South Africa's ecosystems is that they are guaranteed to change.This came to light in a recent workshop titled Counting the Cost of Land Cover Change, held at the University of Pretoria and attended by a network of scientists, conservationists and policy makers known as the Land Cover Change Consortium (LCCC). Read more...

Everyone agrees that capacity building is the answer to many of Africa's development problems. The Alan J Flisher Centre for Public Mental Health (CPMH), a joint initiative between UCT and Stellenbosch University, has put that into practice with the launch of what is Africa's first postgraduate training programme in public mental health. Read more...

During a 15-minute meeting, one thing quickly becomes clear about Raenette Taljaard: she is one industrious person. She thinks fast, talks fast, walks fast, and does just everything else at the same brisk pace. This could explain why she holds so many positions in so many organisations = all with aplomb. Including, since late last year, that of part-time commissioner with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). Read more...