University of the Witwatersrand

The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a leading multi-campus public research university situated in the economic hub of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is known for its academic and research excellence, commitment to social justice, and the advancement of the public good. It was ranked the top university in South Africa and 200th globally in July 2026, according to the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR), a widely accepted objective university ranking standard. Wits University has been recognised as the top-ranked university in sub-Saharan Africa for innovation performance in the 2025 Global Innovation Index.

The university has its roots in the mining industry, as do Johannesburg and the Witwatersrand in general. Founded in 1896 as the South African School of Mines in Kimberley, it is the third oldest South African university in continuous operation.

The university has an enrollment of 41,702 students as of 2025, of which approximately 20 percent on campus in the university's 17 residences. About 61 percent (25,835) of the university's total enrollment is for undergraduate study, with 39 percent (15,867) being postgraduate or occasional students. The university assists students to access higher education as far as its resources allow. The university has an acceptance rate of approximately 4.5%, having received 140,000 applications but only having accepted 6,300 students.

Wits has five faculties, 33 schools and seven campuses in Parktown, Braamfontein and a rural campus in Mpumalanga. The university hosts South Africa's only private teaching hospital, the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre. It also owns the Wits Sterkfontein Caves in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site. In 2016 the Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct was opened in Braamfontein.

The Wits Rural Campus in Mpumalanga conducts longitudinal research in science, health, social and economic areas, which can for example, be compared to data in urban settings.

Nelson Mandela was one of four Nobel laureates that emanate from Wits - the others were Sir Sydney Brenner, Aaron Klug, and Nadine Gordimer, alongside several other prominent Witsies.

History

Early years: 1896–1922

The university was founded in Kimberley in 1896 as the South African School of Mines. It is the third oldest South African university in continuous operation, after the University of Cape Town (founded in 1829), and Stellenbosch University (founded in 1866). Eight years later, in 1904, the school was moved to Johannesburg and renamed the Transvaal Technical Institute. The school's name changed yet again in 1906 to Transvaal University College. In 1908, a new campus of the Transvaal University College was established in Pretoria. The Johannesburg and Pretoria campuses separated on 17 May 1910, each becoming a separate institution. The Johannesburg campus was reincorporated as the South African School of Mines and Technology, while the Pretoria campus remained the Transvaal University College until 1930 when it became the University of Pretoria. In 1920, the school was renamed the University College, Johannesburg.

Open years: 1922–1959

Finally, on 1 March 1922, the University College, Johannesburg, was granted full university status after being incorporated as the University of the Witwatersrand. The Johannesburg municipality donated a site in Milner Park, north-west of Braamfontein, to the new institution as its campus and construction began the same year, on 4 October. The first Chancellor of the new university was Prince Arthur of Connaught and the first Principal (a position that would be merged with that of Vice-Chancellor in 1948) was Professor Jan Hofmeyr. Hofmeyr set the tone of the university's subsequent opposition to apartheid when, during his inaugural address as Principal he declared, while discussing the nature of a university and its desired function in a democracy, that universities "should know no distinctions of class, wealth, race or creed". True to Hofmeyr's words, from the outset Wits was an open university with a policy of non-discrimination on racial or any other grounds.

Initially, there were six faculties - Arts, Science, Medicine, Engineering, Law and Commerce - 37 departments, 73 academic staff, and approximately 1,000 students. In 1923, the university began moving into the new campus, vacating its former premises on Eloff Street for the first completed building in Milner Park: the Botany and Zoology Block. In 1925, the Prince of Wales (the future Edward VIII) officially opened Central Block (which includes the Great Hall).

The university's first library, housed at the time in what was meant to be a temporary construction, was destroyed in a fire on Christmas Eve in 1931. Following this, an appeal was made to the public for £80,000 to pay for the construction of a new library, and the acquisition of books. This resulted in the construction of the William Cullen Library; opened in 1934. During this period, as the Great Depression hit South Africa, the university was faced with severe financial restrictions. Nonetheless, it continued to grow. From a total enrolment of 2,544 students in 1939, the university grew to 3,100 in 1945. This growth led to accommodation problems, which were temporarily resolved by the construction of wood and galvanised-iron huts in the centre of the campus (which remained in use until 1972).

Governance and Administration

As set out in the Higher Education Act (Act No. 101 of 1997) and in the Statute of the University of the Witwatersrand, the university is governed by Council. The chancellor of the university is the ceremonial head of the university who, in the name of the university, confers all degrees. The current chancellor is Dr Judy Dlamini, who spearheads the female Academic Leadership Fellows Programme. The positions of principal and vice-chancellor are merged, with the vice-chancellor and principal responsible for the day-to-day running of the university and accountable to Council. The current vice-chancellor and principal is Prof. Zeblon Vilakazi, a nuclear physicist who will lead Wits until 2030. Council is responsible for the selection of all vice-chancellors, deputy vice-chancellors and deans of faculty.

Campuses

The university spans 480 hectares and is divided into five academic campuses, with the administration building on the Braamfontein East Campus. Across the De Villiers Graaff Motorway lies the West Campus. The two are joined by a brick-paved bridge across the highway called the Sibanye-Stillwater Bridge. East and West Campus effectively form a single campus, bordered by Empire Road to the north, Jan Smuts Avenue to the east, Jorissen Street and Enoch Sontonga Road to the south and Annet Road to the west. The historic East Campus is primarily the home of the faculties of Science and Humanities, as well as Solomon Mahlangu House where the university's Council, Senate and management meet. West Campus houses the faculties of Engineering and the Built Environment, and Commerce, Law and Management. East Campus is home to four residences, namely Men's Res (male), Sunnyside (female), International House (mixed) and Jubilee Hall (female). West Campus is home to David Webster Hall (female), Barnato Hall and West Campus Village (both mixed).

Wits has three more academic campuses, all located in Parktown. The Wits Education Campus houses the Wits School of Education, within the Faculty of Humanities and boasts three female residences, forming the Highfield cluster, namely Girton, Medhurst and Reith Hall. To the east of the Wits Education Campus (across York Road) lies the Faculty of Health Sciences that houses the Wits Medical School and the Philip V. Tobias Building, which is the Faculty's administration building. To the West of the Wits Education Campus (across Victoria Avenue) lies the Wits Management Campus, with the triple accredited Wits Business School. Within the Wits Management Campus are the Ernest Oppenheimer Hall (male residence) and the mixed Parktown Village.

Other residences include Graduate Lodge, Campus Lodge, South Court, Noswal Hall and Braamfontein Centre; all in the city district of Braamfontein and all mixed gender. Further, there is the Wits Junction (mixed) and the Knockando Halls of Residence (a male residence located on the grounds of a Parktown mansion called Northwards) in Parktown.

Sites

Provincial heritage sites and heritage objects

The University of the Witwatersrand houses two provincial heritage sites and two heritage objects. The Great Hall (technically the façade of the Robert Sobukwe Building, formerly known as Central Block, in which the Great Hall is located), and the Dias Cross housed in the William Cullen Library are both provincial heritage sites. They were formerly national monuments, until 1 April 2000 when the National Monuments Council was replaced by a new system which made former national monuments the responsibility of provincial governments following the passage of the National Heritage Resources Act. The heritage objects are Jan Smuts' study, housed in Jan Smuts House, and the Paul Loewenstein Collection of rock art. All of the university's national heritage sites and objects are located on East Campus.

Wits Institute of Social and Economic Research (WiSER)

The University of the Witwatersrand is home to the Wits Institute of Social and Economic Research (WiSER), founded in 2001 by Deborah Posel.

Cradle of Humankind

Wits acquired the Sterkfontein and Swartkrans sites in the 1960s, both of which were rich in fossil remains of early hominids. In 1999, the area was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO as the Cradle of Humankind. As a World Heritage Site, responsibility for the site shifted from the university to the government of Gauteng Province, with the provincial government becoming the designated management authority responsible for developing and protecting the site. It is aided by the South African Heritage Resources Agency, which has also declared the area a national heritage site. The university's Evolutionary Studies Institute within the Faculty of Science, continues to play a leading part in excavations of the site and Wits retains ownership of Sterkfontein and its intellectual rights. Professor Lee Berger discovered Australopithecus sediba (2010) and Homo naledi (2015) at the site. The Wits Sterkfontein Caves reopened to the public in 2025, where Dr Ron Clarke excavated Little Foot. The fossil

Museums

Wits University hosts nine museums, several of which are open to the public. These include the Origins Centre that tells the story of life, the Wits Art Museum which houses 12,000 works of African Art including the Jack Ginsberg Book Collection, the Adler Museum of Medicine on the Health Sciences Campus in Parktown, the Fossil Vault which houses the Taung Child, Little Foot, Homo naledi and various dinosaur fossils and other faunal and floral fossil collections. Wits is also home to the Geosciences Museum, and the Oppenheimer Life Sciences Museum. Some museums like the Hunterian Museum and the Gynaecological Museum are not open to the public and are used for teaching purposes only.

Academics

Faculties

The university consists of five faculties: Commerce, Law and Management; Engineering and the Built Environment; Health Sciences; Humanities; and Science comprising 33 schools.

Libraries

The University of the Witwatersrand Library Service consists of two main libraries, the Warteinweiler and William Cullen libraries on East Campus, and 12 branch libraries. The Wartenweiler Library primarily serves the Faculty of Humanities. It also contains the Library Administration, Library Computer Services and Technical Services departments as well as the Short Loan collection, the Reference collection, Inter-library Loans department, the Multimedia Library, and the Education and Training department as well as the Electronic Classroom. The William Cullen Library contains the Africana collection, specialising in social, political and economic history. It also contains the Early and Fine Printed Books collection, which includes the Incunabula (books printed before 1501). Finally, it also contains a collection of Government Publications and journals in the arts, humanities and social sciences.

Reputation and ranking

In 2019, Wits was ranked 201–300 globally and second nationally in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), commonly known as the Shanghai Ranking. In the 2019/2020 Centre for World University Rankings (CWUR) Wits was ranked No. 254 globally (top 1.3% in the world). In the 2019 US News Best Global Universities Rankings, Wits was ranked second in Africa and No. 197 globally with a Global score of 59.9. Wits ranked No. 194 globally in the 2020 Times Higher Education World University Rankings.

The University of Witwatersrand Business School was ranked sixth best among all business schools in Africa and the Middle East in the 2010 according to the QS Global 200 Business Schools Report. Additionally, the Business School's MBA program has been ranked as the top MBA program in South Africa by the Financial Mail for the past six years.

Student demographics

The university's demographics reflect those of the country – with about 75% Black African students. Admission is based on merit and academic excellence.

Gender composition

The gender composition of the university is shown below.

Notable alumni and academics

Nobel Prize Laureates

• Aaron Klug, 1982 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• Nadine Gordimer, 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature
• Sydney Brenner, 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• Nelson Mandela, 1993 Nobel Peace Prize

Эх сурвалж: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)