Postgraduate Courses At Wits: Postgraduate education involves learning and studying for academic or professional degrees, academic or professional certificates, academic or professional diplomas, or other qualifications for which a first or bachelor’s degree generally is required, and it is normally considered to be part of higher education. In North America, this level is typically referred to as graduate school (and often colloquially as grad school).
The organization and structure of postgraduate education vary in different countries, as well as in different institutions within countries. This article outlines the basic types of courses and of teaching and examination methods, with some explanation of their history. A postgraduate is a student who has successfully completed an undergraduate degree level course at a college or university and is undertaking further study at a more advanced level.
A postgraduate degree is a degree that is completed upon the completion of a bachelor’s degree, this can be anything from an MRes degree through to a master’s degree. The postgraduate certificate is a postgraduate qualification, it is at the same level as a master’s degree, but it is not its equivalent.
Postgraduate Courses At Wits
Wits offers a comprehensive choice of postgraduate programmes. Each of our faculties offers study choices at the Honours, Masters and PhD level either full-time or part-time depending on the particular degree and by coursework or through research based programmes.
Many more careers are becoming multidisciplinary and people need to acquire new skills to match these ever challenging roles. People are also changing careers more often, creating the need to enhance one’s skills to keep up with these career moves. Rapid developments in knowledge across disciplines also requires one to constantly update one’s understanding and skills base. Life long learning has become an imperative.
Wits offers you the opportunity to become globally competitive and locally relevant with a qualification from one of South Africa’s leading universities. It is a university that is renowned for its high calibre graduates, academic standing and research capabilities. Wits challenges you to create new knowledge boundaries and to develop original thinking which is the cornerstone of intellectual growth. Our research focus ensures that Wits students and staff operate at the leading edge of disciplines.
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Approximately one third of the student body at Wits comprises postgraduate students. Wits is thus dedicated to providing quality training to postgraduate students as one means of ensuring a continuous supply of active and motivated researchers, while at the same time enriching the University’s undergraduate teaching.
How to apply
Applications to study in will be open:
- All part-time degrees: 1 July to 30 September
- Short courses: from 13 September to 7 January
- Corporate Governance and Administration: from 13 September
What you need to know
Full detail of the application process for each of the above categories appears in the description of the category.
HOWEVER: it is important to note the following:
- Degree applications can only be done online and only when applications are open.
- Short course applications may be submitted via email during lockdown and until further notice.
- Applications for Corporate Governance may also be submitted via email during lockdown and until further notice.
- An application fee is payable and proof of payment must be submitted with each application.
- Once your application has been approved, you will be informed of the registration date.
Application forms can be found on the various course information pages for:
About Wits University
The University of the Witwatersrand is a multi-campus South African public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits. 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 enrolment of 40,259 students as of 2018, of which approximately 20 percent live on campus in the university’s 17 residences. 63 percent of the university’s total enrolment is for undergraduate study, with 35 percent being postgraduate and the remaining 2 percent being Occasional Students.
The 2017 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) places Wits University, with its overall score, as the highest ranked university in Africa. Wits was ranked as the top university in South Africa in the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) in 2016. According to the CWUR rankings, Wits occupies this ranking position since 2014.
History
However, we are going to list the history of Wits University on this page for you. The university has so many history about them and here they are:
1. 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),[8] 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.
2. 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, northwest 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, slowly vacating its former premises on Ellof 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
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 fairly rapid 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 at an impressive rate. 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 galvanized-iron huts in the center of the campus (which remained in use until 1972).
During World War II, Wits was involved in South Africa’s war efforts. The Bernard Price Institute of Geophysical Research was placed under the Union of South Africa’s defense ministry and was involved in important research into the use of radar. Additionally, an elite force of female soldiers was trained on the university’s campus.
In 1948 the National Party (NP)
In 1948 the National Party (NP) was voted into power by South Africa’s white electorate. And apartheid (Afrikaans for “separateness”) policies started to become law. The racist separation policies sparked a response. In 1957, by Wits, the University of Cape Town. Rhodes University, and the University of Natal, who issued a joint statement entitled”. The Open Universities in South Africa”, committing themselves to the principles of university autonomy and academic freedom.
In 1959, the apartheid government’s Extension of University Education Act forced restricted registrations of black students for most of the apartheid era; despite this, several notable black leaders graduated from the university. Wits protested strongly and continued to maintain a firm and consistent stand in opposition to apartheid. This marked the beginning of a period of conflict with the apartheid regime, which also coincided with a period of massive growth for the university. It was desegregated once again, prior to the abolition of apartheid, in 1990. Several of apartheid’s most provocative critics, of either European or African descent, were one-time students and graduates of the university.
Growth and opposition to apartheid: 1959–1994
As the university continued to grow (from a mere 6,275 students in 1963, to 10,600 in 1975, to over 16,400 by 1985), the expansion of the university’s campus became imperative. In 1964, the medical library and administrative offices of the Faculty of Medicine moved to Esselen Street, in the Hillbrow district of Johannesburg. In 1968, the Graduate School of Business was opened in Parktown. A year later, the Ernest Oppenheimer Hall of Residence and Savernake, the new residence of the Vice-Chancellor (replacing Hofmeyr House on the main campus) were both established, also in Parktown. That same year, the Medical School’s new clinical departments were opened.
During the course of the 1960s, Wits acquired a limestone cave renowned for its archaeological material located at Sterkfontein. A farm next to Sterkfontein named Swartkrans rich in archaeological material was purchased in 1968. And excavation rights were obtained for archaeological and palaeontological purposes at Makapansgat. Located in Limpopo Province.
In Conclusion
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