Our vision for UCT is to be an inclusive, engaged and research-intensive African university. UCT will inspire creativity through outstanding achievements in discovery and innovation. It will be celebrated for the quality of its learning and contribution to citizenship. We will enhance the lives of students and staff and will advance a more equitable and sustainable social order. We aspire to be a leader in the global higher education landscape.
We embrace our African identity.
We widen educational and social opportunities.
We enhance the lives of individuals and communities.
We build an equitable social order based on respect for human rights.
We advance the public good by teaching, generating knowledge and actively engaging with the key challenges facing our society.
We want a student and staff body that is more representative of the country and the continent, and for students and staff to see themselves – their cultures, values, heritage and knowledge systems – reflected at the university.
Global partnerships with a distinctive African lens
We want to advance the status and distinctiveness of scholarship in Africa, and attract and connect people from all over the world, by promoting a vibrant and supportive intellectual environment at UCT.
A research-intensive university
We want UCT researchers to continue making a distinctive contribution to local and global knowledge and to produce new solutions to challenges facing the African continent and the world.
Innovation in teaching and learning
We want to improve students’ success rates, broaden their academic perspectives, stimulate their social consciousness and cultivate more critical citizens by renewing our approach to teaching and learning, and pioneering new methods.
Social impact through engaged scholarship
We want to enhance UCT’s engaged scholarship to address critical development and social justice issues, including the expansion of community and external partnerships.