2007 Annual Report

At the end of 2007 we celebrated –
ƒ Ten joyous graduation ceremonies at which we saw record numbers of qualifiers – and in particular record numbers of PhD qualifiers – take their degrees, the culmination of the teaching and learning work of the University;
ƒ Being honoured by a distinguished group of men and women who accepted honorary doctorates – Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese leader and Nobel Laureate (accepted on her behalf by the irrepressible and much-loved Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu); Mark Dry, the scientist behind SASOL’s position as the leader in oil-from-coal technology; George Philander a recently returned UCT graduate of the 1950s with an extraordinary record of achievement in ocean and atmosphere
science; Johan, Lord Steyn, a South African who has made an important contribution to English and international jurisprudence as a Law Lord; and Cape Town’s duo of David Kramer and the late Taliep Petersen;
ƒ A very considerable record of research achievement, the highlights of which included: 26 competitive new research chairs awarded to UCT; an increase in the number of post docs working at UCT to 156; the increase in research income to R547,5 million (from R399,7 million in 2006); and the ratings received by UCT academics in the National Research Found (NRF) researcher evaluation process - there are now 279 rated academics at UCT of whom 30 had achieved A
rating by the end of 2007 (an A rating is the NRF’s category for world leaders renowned for the quality of their research); and
ƒ A ranking (though we must be careful not to put too much store by this) in the top 200 Universities of the World in the Times Higher Education Supplement annual survey (coming as it did on top of several other such rankings for the University as a whole or its constituent parts).