The Chancellor: Archbishop Desmond Tutu (in absentia)
Rector and Vice-Chancellor: Prof. Brian O’Connell
Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic: Prof. Ramesh Bharuthram
Pro Vice-Chancellor: Prof. Stanley Ridge
The Chairperson of the University Council: Mr. Brian Williams
Head of the South Africa Office of the Atlantic Philanthropies: Mr. Gerald Kraak
Dean of the Science Faculty: Prof. Jan van Bever Donker
University management
Leaders and Researchers from other Universities & Science Councils
Distinguished Guests
Students
Thank you for the kind introduction and welcome.
I’d like to start by congratulating the University on the constructin of this Life Sciences building. It’s a remarkable achievement.
The building is not only impressive from an architectural point of view – and I am seriously impressed by all its green features - but will also house great minds and flagship projects.
I think of the bioinformatics research group under the leadership of the South African Research Chair in Bioinformatics and Health, the Water Research Programme under the Unesco Chair in Water Studies, South Africa’s only Male Fertility Research Unit, the Institute for Molecular Biology and Metagenomics and its world-wide network (18 postdoctoral fellows from SA and from major institutions across the world), the pioneering work on Frogs of Africa and on Geographic Information Systems and ecological monitoring in the Department of Biodiversity and Conservation Biology, and the South African Herbal Sciences and Medicines Institute which is a major partner in an NIH-sponsored project with the University of Missouri, USA.
That is an impressive list.
UWC is confidently evolving from a teaching institution into an institution with sophisticated research activities.
The types of research performed at UWC have vastly expanded and improved in the past ten years.
Teaching is still the core activity but research is increasingly taking centre stage.
The University can be proud of the fact that it produces the largest number of black and female postgraduate science students in the country.
I’d also like to congratulate the University on its 50th anniversary this year.
It has been a remarkable fifty years.
I can remember when UWC was known as ‘Bush’.
Students were offered limited training so they could take up low- to mid-level positions in schools, civil service and other institutions that served a separated coloured community.
What a transformation there has been.
Today the University offers 200 degree, diploma and certificate programmes in a variety of subjects spread across seven faculties.
Today UWC is the only place in Africa undertaking comprehensive research in hydrogen and fuel cell development.
And today UWC is a leader in biotechnology, especially genetics of life forms that strive in extreme conditions, and their implications for our understanding of microbial molecular ecology.
This new Life Sciences Building will provide an enabling environment for the development of the next generation of researchers, the nurturing and support of emerging researchers, and the retention and attraction of established researchers.
The national average for fulltime academic staff with a doctoral qualification is 34%, and UWC is one of 4 institutions with a rating of 50%.
To do better in science, South Africa requires high-level skilled human capital and quality research infrastructure. They are priority areas requiring intensive support.
There are some 16,000 instructional/research staff members (HEMIS, 2008), of whom between 3-4,000 are actively publishing their research.
Yet these 3-4,000 active researchers have produced a fairly constant number of publications, namely between 5,000 and 6,000 per annum from 1987 to 2004.
In 2008 this number grew significantly to 8 500. However, to put this in global perspective this is less than 1% of the world’s output per annum.
However, in the decade to 2008, South Africa produced the most research in Africa, with nearly 47,000 papers, Egypt came next with nearly 30,000 papers, and Nigeria produced over 10,000 papers.
Investment in researchers also requires a concomitant investment in high quality research equipment and infrastructure.
To this end, the DST is committed to increasing the national investment in priority research infrastructure, which includes cyber infrastructure, specialized laboratories, and large high-end infrastructure and global infrastructure.
In addition, the DST has put in place various programmes, such as the South African Chairs programme, the establishment of Centres of Excellence and Centres of Competence, the Technology Innovation Agency and student support programmes.
It is evident that UWC has already benefited significantly from these interventions.
The DST’s recognition of the excellent work that has been done at UWC and its commitment to continue to support the research agenda and teaching programmes at this institution is evident from the very recent investment in the establishment of a Centre on Systems Integration and Technology Validation (HySA Systems) for the development of hydrogen and fuel cell technology.
This is part of the DST’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Technologies Research Development and Innovation Strategy (HySA). The Centre, which will be located in a temporary building in Symphony Park (next to UWC) will be launched on 14th September 2010.
The construction that you see next to this Life Sciences Building is the permanent home of a 2000 square-metre laboratory (and offices) for HySA Systems.
The building will be named the “New Metrology Building” and is expected to be completed by March 2011. This initiative demonstrates the Department’s commitment to engage in intergovernmental collaboration for the advancement of excellence and growth in Science and Education.
In closing, let me thank you for the opportunity to share with you in the celebration of the 50th anniversary and opening of this landmark building.
It is also an appropriate occasion to acknowledge and appreciate the contributions by the facilitatory Chancellor of the University, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He served the University for 22 years and will be retiring in the first part of next year.
I thank you.
