The University is a values-based, research-intensive university that equips its students to succeed in a rapidly changing world by providing students with inquiry-led training and learning opportunities. The University of Pretoria’s long-term Strategic Plan captures the essence of a shared vision, aiming to sustain UP’s quality and relevance as a university that is firmly rooted in Africa, and to harness its existing and future potential for diversity. UP strives to ensure that it is recognised in the global marketplace of knowledge production.
UP has nine faculties and a business school:
- Economic and Management Sciences
- Education
- Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology
- Health Sciences
- Humanities
- Law
- Natural and Agricultural Sciences
- Theology
- Veterinary Science (the only faculty of its kind in South Africa)
- the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS).
The University of Pretoria came into existence in 1908 as the Pretoria branch of the Transvaal University College. The College became a fully-fledged university in 1930 and the colloquial name Tuks, or Tukkies, was derived from the acronym TUC for Transvaal University College. UP’s current facilities portfolio consists of more than 790 buildings and structures spread over 33 sites located on six campuses that cover 1100 hectares of land. In the 106 years of its existence the University has produced more than 230 000 alumni. The University prides itself on producing well-rounded, creative graduates, responsible, productive citizens and future leaders. Great emphasis is placed on student life and support as well as the advancement of sport, art, culture and music.
Technology is allowing scientists to better understand fungal viruses, with the aim of managing them more effectively.
Trabajadores empaquetando en la empresa más grande de la India de producción de jeringuillas. El apoyo del Gobierno ha sido clave para el desarrollo de esta capacidad.
Sajjad Hussain / AFP via Getty Images
Los Gobiernos africanos, las empresas y los organismos donantes deben aunar esfuerzos para apoyar la fabricación local de vacunas y otros equipos sanitarios en el continente.
Workers pack syringes at India’s biggest syringe manufacturer. Government support has been key to developing this capacity.
Photo by Sajjad Hussain/AFP via Getty Images
African governments, firms and donor agencies should align their efforts to support the local manufacture of vaccines and other health equipment in African countries.
Christof Heyns served as UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions and on the UN Human Rights Committee.
University of Pretoria
From his positions at the United Nations, Professor Heyns made a huge impact on the protection of the right to life and the right of peaceful assembly.
Students protesting over financial exclusion on March 2021 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Sharon Seretlo/Gallo Images via GettyImages
South Africa’s economic challenges and the high number of students from poor and working class families call for a funding model that doesn’t create an affordability crisis for students and the state.
South African Police Service march to disperse students blocking traffic in Johannesburg, in March.
Michele Spatari / AFP via Getty Images
South Africans deserve a fuller picture of the extent of police brutality, and the level of accountability, especially when people die at the hands of police.
Researchers examined the traces of what was likely a human settlement in the Cradle of Humankind.
Tim Forssman
Stone-walled structures such as Driefontein often store information that’s not written down and are the only remaining resources to help understand local histories.
Hundreds of Namibians protested against growing gender-based violence in October 2020. The Afrikaans wording on the placard says ‘We are tired’.
Hildegard Titus/AFPvia Getty Images)
The legitimacy of SWAPO, the former liberation movement that has governed since 1990, has been eroded amid growing corruption and a deepening economic crisis.
Nigerian security personnel inspect the site of a blast at Nyanya bus station in the outskirts of Abuja
Stringer/AFP via Getty Images
Sustainable financial inclusion in Nigeria requires interventions that strengthen financial capability, participation and well-being of small-scale farmers.
Local diets need to be sustainable, linked to human health and environmental sustainability.
shutterstock/ Jaime Garcia M
Indigenous foods such as cowpeas can improve people’s nutrition and help them cope with the hunger brought about by the effects of COVID-19 on foreign food imports.
Former South African president Jacob Zuma at the State Capture Commission in July 2019.
EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook
Metaphors are not used for their own sake in politics, but as part of a strategy to persuade a particular audience to accept a point of view, and act accordingly
Healthcare workers around the country are getting the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.
Phill Magakoe / AFP via Getty Images
Occasionally, a mutation will give the virus a better chance of surviving and reproducing itself, and will result in a new population (known as a new lineage)
African leaders at the 38th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
EPA-EFE/STR
Having four female Commissioners out of six is a good start, but that alone is will not erase the vulnerabilities that women face in leadership and everyday life.
Militarised conservation has had unfortunate consequences.
Shutterstock
Forest rangers were subjected to occupational violence by their employers. This in turn can provoke a violent reaction to illegal activities, resulting in violent policing tendencies.
Many countries around the world, like Bangladesh, have started COVID-19 vaccination.
Kazi Salahuddin Razu/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Negotiating for the fair treatment of study participants and benefit sharing before a study commences does not constitute an unfair inducement. It is an ethical imperative.
The more President Mnangagwa’s government fails to engage democratically with its own citizens, the more it will negate any prospect of re-engagement with the West.
People queue for food aid south of Johannesburg. The impact of COVID-19 on people’s livelihoods has been severe.
Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg via Getty Images
South Africa’s economic recovery plan must focus on at least three areas: protecting vulnerable populations, supporting the vulnerable sectors and external trade diversification.
Paediatrician, Paediatric Pulmonologist, Associate Professor, Department of Paediatrics & Extraordinary Professor, Department of Immunology, University of Pretoria