Rhodes scholarship for UCT graduate

Oxford-bound: James Morrisey is the most recent UCT graduate to have won a Rhodes Scholarship.

Graduate James Morrisey has joined UCT's growing ranks of Rhodes Scholarship winners. Morrisey, who completed his honours degree with the Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences (EGS) in 2004, snagged the scholarship awarded by his old school - and UCT forebear - South African College School (SACS). SACS is just one of four South African schools, singled out by Cecil John Rhodes in his will, to grant a scholarship each year. All things being equal, Morrisey will head for Oxford in September 2006. He plans to register for an MPhil in development studies at Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford's centre for development studies, where plenty of attention is paid to conditions in Africa, Asia and Latin America. "I've got the environmental side, and now I'm trying to understand the social aspects and see how they interact," he says. For now, Morrisey is still with EGS, putting the finishing touches to some independent studies while also doing research for the department's Disaster Mitigation for Sustainable Livelihoods Programme (DiMP).