Wits hosts Edinburgh delegation
- Wits University
Strategic partner and top UK University visits to cement ties and toast to the next 100 years.
A high-level delegation from the University of Edinburgh (UoE) in the UK, which is a strategic international partner of Wits University, explored the length and breadth of Wits.
The University of Edinburgh is one of the top 16 strategic partners of Wits University, amongst 115 international partnerships worldwide.
The delegation, led by UoE’s Principal and Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Mathieson, aims to strengthen ties between the two universities. The partners collaborate in teaching, research, and community outreach projects and recently extended their partnership.
Some of the existing priority areas are inequality studies, health informatics, digital innovation, and rangeland management, with more synergies being explored.
Speaking at the Braamfontein campus, Mathieson said the conversations have been ‘inspirational’ and he looks forward to facilitating the relationship into the next century as Wits celebrates 100 years.
“This is a marriage of two universities thousands of miles of apart united by shared values, interests and purpose,” he said regarding the endurance of the relationship.
The two institutions partnered in a recent bid and were successful in securing funding from the British Council’s Going Global Partnerships programme, which supports the development of Africa-UK partnerships that can build institutional capacity to develop entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems in selected African countries.
The delegation also spent time at the Wits Rural Campus to learn about the research and student training undertaken in the Bushbuckridge region of Limpopo.
This included learning about the Wits Rural Knowledge Hub, Wits’ research on environment, livelihoods and sustainability, and the research and data platforms of the Medical Research Council/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt Unit) in the lowveld.
