Summer School plays to big crowd

Sweltering heat and early power outages didn't hold back over 3 000 faithfuls who registered for the evergreen two-week long Summer School this year. Medee Rall, director of the Centre for Extra-Mural Studies, said several lectures and programmes among the smorgasbord on offer had long waiting lists. One of these was Global Catastrophe: Past and Future, co-ordinated by Emer Prof of Natural Philosophy, Brian Warner. Equally well subscribed were: The Last of the Romanovs, How Clothes Speak, Introduction to the Philosophy of Science, Battles that Shaped South Africa and the French Riviera in Art. Mandarin for Beginners was included for the first time. Mandarin is the most widely spoken Chinese language and the leading world language in sheer speaker numbers. Its impact is yet to be felt globally.