2004 Annual Report

This report concentrates on the Council, but it is right to begin with some assessment of UCT in its 175th year, and in the tenth year of the democratic South Africa. We have record numbers of students, and there is evidence that we appear to be the South African university of choice. Our throughput rates, our research ratings by almost all measures, and our standing in external evaluations put UCT at the top of South Africa’s universities. We have a strong record of engagement with the challenges facing our country. Our fi nancial position, though not as strong as we would wish, is robust. Half our students are black, and more than half are women. Our students come to us from a wide range of countries, and the demand for places from countries in the SADC region and elsewhere in Africa grows every year. We completed a major construction project (the new R 55 million building for Chemical Engineering) and are close to completing a second (the Institute for Infectious Diseases and Molecular Medicine). To top the list, 2004 saw alumnus and long-time staff member, JM Coetzee, receive the Nobel Prize for Literature, and cosmologist George Ellis win the Templeton Prize. These are achievements that any university must celebrate.

Against those achievements: despite employment equity policies adopted in the 1980s, and considerable effort, we have a long way to go in reaching the targets we have set ourselves. Our student throughput rates must improve, and the throughput rates of our black students are significantly worse than those of white students. The state’s National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) is substantially better than it was, and we continue to put considerable amounts of our own resources into providing financial aid, but many of our students face real difficulties in funding their university careers. For too many who might have been our students, the cost of a UCT education puts it beyond their reach. These are among the many issues that continue to cause us to reflect.