Understanding yesterday

Exploring our beginnings

The origins of humankind were discovered by some of Wits’ most talented scientists, from P V Tobias to Lee Berger, who was recently named in the Time 100 list of the world’s most influential people. Our Evolutionary Studies Institute is a centre of excellence in palaeosciences and a global hub for the study of the origins of species. We will build on our strengths in this area, so that we are all better able to understand where we come from and how we might evolve.

“These types of discoveries give us real insight into the past lives of these human ancestors, the world they lived in and the things they feared”. - Professor Lee Berger, Chair in Paleo-anthropology.

Documenting our history

We will support the development of the Wits Historical Papers Research Archive, one of the largest and most comprehensive independent archives in southern Africa. It houses over 3,400 collections of historical, political and cultural importance, from the mid-17th Century to the present. The archive includes Nelson Mandela’s original papers from the Rivonia Trial, which led to his imprisonment. It is an invaluable resource for scholars seeking lessons from our political and social history.

“Africa gave the world humanity; Africa gave the world its first human culture and that is no small feat” - Emeritus Professor Phillip Tobias.

Defining today

Making everyone healthier

Wits consistently delivers a wide range of medical innovations and produces more medical doctors and specialists than any university in South Africa. We will further support these professionals to address some of our country and continent’s most pressing public health needs, including maternal health and HIV/AIDS. The Medical Research Council/Wits Rural Health Unit, for example, tracks changes in society, health and population so that we can develop better public health initiatives for people in rural areas. PRICELESS (Priority Cost Effective Lessons for System Strengthening South Africa) helps to identify priority areas for investment that can significantly improve public health and recently played a major role in having the sugar tax introduced in South Africa. With your support, the Institute will be a unique research and technology innovation hub within the Faculty of Health Sciences and would fundamentally change how healthcare is conducted in South Africa and on the continent. At the core of transforming healthcare in South Africa and the continent is getting the basics right which means understanding the specific health needs of our population. The Institute will use data sciences, artificial intelligence and precision medicine to determine national health priorities and the health economics required to address our specific health needs.

Solving inequality

We will build on our internationally leading work to strive for a more equal world, through the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies, which today brings together 80 researchers from Wits and beyond. And we will explore how we can shape a more inclusive society and address transformation, through the Wits Centre for Diversity Studies and the African Centre for Migration and Society.

“We study how power reproduces inequality. It is not only how inequality is reproduced, but how it can be overcome, reduced or challenged. We identify the forces, instruments, and policies that would develop a coalition that would begin to challenge inequality. Wits was at the centre of many of the struggles of the anti-apartheid movement; our work positions Wits as a critical enabler of a more egalitarian society in the future.” - Professor Edward Webster, Director of the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies.

Shaping tomorrow

Driving global change

Wits is an academic thought leader driving the global change agenda. Through our Global Change Institute – and by exploring new ideas across a range of disciplines – we will address future challenges at the intersection of sustainable development and the digital era. Our ambition is to understand how these new developments will impact on people’s lives, so that we can place South Africa and Africa at the centre of a braver new world. The majority of the world’s population growth over the next century will happen in Africa; and so questions around the sustainability of our planet need to be answered locally. South Africa and Africa are currently not sufficiently attuned to the challenges that this growth will bring and we urgently need to find contextually relevant solutions.

“The next decades are critical for the success of the ‘modern project’, in other words the sustained increase in average human wellbeing that we have witnessed over the past two centuries. How the world and South Africa navigates the challenges of balancing human needs with the ecological capacity of the planet, where the current mismatch is manifest through the global climate, biodiversity loss, ecosystem degradation, resource depletion and the accumulation of wastes, will determine our long-term future as a species and civilisation”. - Professor Bob Scholes, Director, Wits Global Change Institute.

Through the future of mining

Wits and mining have always been intertwined. Our University started life as a Mining School in the late 19th century; and it has been at the forefront of research in the sector around the world. Through the Wits Mining Institute, we will develop the knowledge to shape mining in the 21st Century, ensuring the growth of a major economic sector locally and globally. We have unique expertise in deep level mining, in mining safety and in the rehabilitation of mines.

“The Wits Mining Institute conducts and facilitates multidisciplinary research and within every project, encourages partnerships to ensure a sustainable business model. Its flagship programme is the digital mining laboratory (DigiMine), where its focus is to conduct tests, research and development for transferring surface digital technologies into the underground mining environment. It also identifies and develops skills required to operate 21st Century, technologically-intensive mines, which feed into a programme for developing modern skill-sets at artisan, technician and professional levels for the mining sector.” - Professor Fred Cawood – Director, Wits Mining Institute

Building the next generation

Throughout our history, Wits has produced local and global leaders across civil society, business, health and politics. We have transformed lives by taking people from marginalised communities and turning them into global leaders in society. The future of our country and our continent depends on our ability to continue producing the next generation of leaders. We will enable the best and the brightest to access our institution so that they can continue Wits’ tradition of making an impact on our world. To meet the needs of the National Development Plan, Wits has been driving up our postgraduate numbers. Postgraduates now make up 37% of our student body and this will be increased to 45% by 2023, primarily in the laboratory disciplines and natural sciences. To facilitate this, we need to provide scholarships, expand facilities, and increase availability of equipment to encourage and facilitate more scientific research. Talented postgraduates are vital to the creation of the new generation of scientific professionals that will allow us to remain competitive in the 21st century.

“The fourth industrial revolution raises many questions for universities to consider. This epoch requires us to push the boundaries of teaching and learning, and at Wits we create the space to have conversations across social, academic, industry and community boundaries. It is essential that we bring our ideas to the fore and reshape these conversations in ways that resonate with who we are, where we are located and what this means for us and our futures.” - Professor Ruksana Osman, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic

For the future of humanity

We will examine the outlook for ‘human-ness’ in a changing digital world, and consider Africa’s place in our shared future, through the Wits Institute for Socio-Economic Research (WiSER). Globally recognised for its work, WiSER shapes global debates in the public humanities and how we engage with our society. From exploring Africa’s history to its future in the digital humanities, it is an intellectual powerhouse on Africa, in Africa. We will also encourage Africa’s best minds, present and future, to return to the continent so that we can own our future and shape the global agenda from an African perspective.

“In the same way that Wits led the continent in responses to the burden of diseases such as HIV/AIDS and TB, where our researchers came up with ground-breaking research and solutions, we can find the solutions to address sustainable development in the digital era.” - Professor Zeblon Vilakazi, Vice-Principal and Vice-Chancellor Designate