Wits University’s long-term strategic partner, the University of Edinburgh (Scotland, United Kingdom), is offering African Fellowships exclusively to Wits humanities researchers, for the sixth year running.  Edinburgh’s Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) is offering African Fellowships for researchers with PhDs who are based at Wits to undertake research in Edinburgh in 2025-26.

Apply by 17h00 (SA time) on Friday 28 February 2025 – see details below.

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Dear Colleagues

We are reaching the end of yet another successful year, thanks to the efforts of the Wits community, and in particular to you, our staff members, who make this University exceptional. On behalf of the Senior Executive Team, I thank you for ensuring that Wits remains a beacon of hope, excellence and innovation in the world today.

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Join us for a webinar in which Jonny Steinberg will discuss his internationally acclaimed book, which takes in a century of South African history through the prism of the marriage of Nelson Mandela and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Jonny, a Wits alumnus and researcher at WISER at Wits, is now based at Yale University, USA. He will be in conversation with his Wits colleague, Hlonipha Mokoena, WISER’s new Director.

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Wits University shines as a beacon of hope for South Africa, thanks to the dedication of you, our global Wits community. Despite global and local challenges, our accomplishments inspire optimism. We disbursed R1.4 billion in financial aid, scholarships and bursaries, thereby impacting on thousands of students, and unveiled groundbreaking infrastructure projects like the Wits Brian and Dorothy Zylstra Sports Complex. Research flourished while relevant initiatives like the Wits Innovation Centre emerged.

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The jacarandas have showered their flowers in front of Wits’ Great Hall as spring arrived in South Africa. Though the cool weather of autumn is upon the UK, the warmest of wishes from UK alumni, partners and friends of Wits greeted us as we announced a joint doctoral programme with a top UK university and when a Wits Deputy Vice-Chancellor visited the UK recently. Thank you for remembering your roots and for the warm welcome.

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Summer has arrived and brings with it many memories – the smell of the wet earth on the Library Lawns after a Joburg afternoon thunderstorm, the taste of a boerewors roll and a ray of sunshine with a sprinkling of blue and gold outside the Great Hall.

We hope that this newsletter will bring us closer as a community, and that it becomes a vibrant space created by Witsies for Witsies, where we can celebrate the remarkable accomplishments of Witsies in the UK and graduates with the edge – no matter where they are scattered across the globe.

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Researchers from Wits and the University of Edinburgh held a symposium to explore collaborative opportunities for Space Research projects.

Already nestled in a strong strategic partnership, both universities recognise that as Global South and Global North institutions, there are unique opportunities to utilise their complementary strengths to collaborate on future-thinking research projects such as Space Research.

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Given its natural resources, its young growing population, and its location at the centre of the world, Africa, and its sustainable futures, are becoming increasingly globally important, and locally relevant. It is therefore imperative for Africa to develop the high-level skills required to achieve a just and inclusive, sustainable society, and to address the 21st-century challenges.

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It was the meeting of three great intellectuals, all Fellows of the Royal Society (UK), all scientists, and all fellow Witsies. Professor Zeblon Vilakazi (FRS), the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Wits University, hosted Distinguished Wits Professor Roger Sheldon (FRS), known as the father of green chemistry and catalysis, and Professor Graham Hutchings (FRS), a former Wits staff member, who is renowned for his work in heterogeneous catalysis.  

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