UCT flag at half-mast to honour Esidimeni victims and other developments

Dear colleagues and students

This is an update on a number of developments on campus, including honouring the Esidimeni victims, water restriction measures, the Institutional Reconciliation and Transformation Commission (IRTC) Steering Committee, deferred exams and the Teaching and Learning Conference.

UCT flag at half-mast to honour Esidimeni victims

The University of Cape Town flag on top of Jameson Hall will fly at half-mast from 3 February until 10 February 2017 in recognition of the many people who died in the Esidimeni tragedy. Read the media release...

Water restrictions and what we are doing

Following the City of Cape Town?s implementation of Level 3B water restrictions on 1 February, we will put in place a number of water-saving measures. These include:

• Ceasing the weekly washing of the Jammie Shuttle buses and reverting to a monthly dry-wash;
• Ceasing the washing of all windows on campus until restrictions are eased
• Ceasing the topping-up of non-sporting pools until restrictions are eased
• Urging faculties and departments to cease the washing of pool cars or other campus vehicles.

We have been fortunate to have been granted an exemption from the Level 3B water restrictions, limited to the irrigation of the gardens and sports fields, allowing them to be maintained in what we and the City term survival mode. It does not permit us a blanket exemption across campus. Please help us by doing your part and reducing water usage in your work spaces, study areas, residences and homes.

Progress with deferred exams

The deferred exams began on 23 January and will continue until 10 February. The exams are proceeding smoothly. A total of 562 papers are being written and the exams are now near the midway stage. There are just over 7 000 students writing the deferred exams. The paper with the biggest number of students scheduled to write is Economics 1011, with 495 students.

Updated 16:00: MBChB third-year students will be examined from 13-17 February 2017, while MBChB second-year students will be examined from 20-24 February 2017.

The IRTC Steering Committee

The IRTC Steering Committee held its first meeting on Thursday, 26 January. The purpose of this meeting was to determine operational procedures for the steering committee, provisional terms of reference for the IRTC, the criteria for selection of commissioners and a provisional timeframe for the work of the IRTC. The chair of the steering committee, who is also chair of UCT Council, Mr Sipho Pityana, wrote to the UCT community to provide feedback on this meeting. Read the Chair?s Desk...

In addition, you can read the Rapid Response Task Team?s first newsletter on its activities.

Teaching and Learning Conference update

The UCT Teaching and Learning Conference, which was planned for 20 October 2016, could not take place as scheduled due to the extensive local and national student protests. After consultation within the Centre for Higher Education Development, the Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching and Learning, Professor Daya Reddy, has accepted a proposal to cancel the 2016 Teaching and Learning Conference so that the university can hold a 2017 conference on 2 August, which will represent the most contemporary experiences, insights and research by UCT staff. A call for participation will be issued in March.

Highlights from 2016

With 2017 underway, we are looking forward to another year during which UCT will continue attaining or surpassing the academic and professional achievements of 2016. To revisit a number of milestones in ? among others ? research, teaching, transformation and senior leadership appointments, read the Vice-Chancellor?s summary.

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