University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg

Our partnership with the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) focuses on research collaborations and mobility opportunities.

Wits University building

Wits-Edinburgh partnership

Our partnership with Wits is built over many years. The Wits-Edinburgh partnership is founded on:

  • Research and innovation
  • Teaching and learning
  • Staff and resources

Background 

In October 2018, Prof James Smith and former Wits Vice-Chancellor Prof Adam Habib, signed the first university-level MoU, to formalise the partnership between both universities.

We are building on long-standing links most notably between Centre of African Studies and Wits’ African Centre for Migration and Society (ACMS). 

The institutional MoU was renewed in October 2021, signed by Edinburgh Principal Prof Peter Mathieson and Wits VC Prof Zeblon Vilakazi.  After the institutional MoU, an MoU focused on African Fellowships 2023-2026 was signed in December 2022. 

University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg

Research collaborations

In the first five years (2018-2022) of our partnerships with Wits, research collaborations have occurred across all three of Edinburgh’s Colleges and all five of Wits’ Faculties.

Priority areas include: Inequality Studies, Health Informatics, Digital Innovation and Rangeland Management, other collaborations have included energy, environment, molecular bioscience, public health, rock art, student entrepreneurship, and Fellowships. 

The following additional research collaborations are being developed in 2023:

  • Earth, climate, sustainability & inequality
  • Space & applied earth observation
  • Data science
  • Health science
  • Water stewardship

Research and innovation

Entrepreneurship

Wits and Edinburgh, along with our partners Tshimologong and African Circular Economy Network (ACEN), were awarded £100,000 in funding in September 2021 under the Innovation in African Universities (IAU) project to create an enterprise clinic at Wits. A further £20,000 was awarded for activities to bring the IAU community together on shared work.

The resulting Wits Entrepreneurship Clinic (WEC) was launched in May 2022 at Wits by Edinburgh’s Principal Prof Mathieson, Wits’ DVC Research and Innovation Prof Lynn Morris and representatives of the donor, the British Council.

A Wits WEC delegation led by the head of Wits’ School of Business Sciences Prof Helen Duh, visited Edinburgh in April 2023 hosted by Lorna Baird, Edinburgh’s Student Enterprise Manager.

Space & Satellites, Earth Observation, AI

Prof Iain Woodhouse who leads Edinburgh’s space and satellites specialist area hosted a day-long symposium on 5 June 2023 for Wits researchers to explore collaborative opportunities.

Wits participants included Prof Sally Archibald, Prof Ken Nixon (Electrical and Information Engineering), Dr Randall Paton (Mechanical, Industrial & Aeronautical Engineering), Prof Benji Rosman (Robotics, Autonomous Intelligence and Learning (RAIL)), with Dr Laven Naidoo of the Gauteng City Region Observatory (GCRO) joining online.

Joint seed funding

In January 2021, Wits and UoE jointly supported five new projects between researchers at each institution, including two UoE Chancellors Fellows.

The projects focused on

  • Covid-19 and hypertension risk in South Africa (Clara Calvert and Lisa Ware)
  • Archiving digital rock art data (Jon Henderson and Sam Challis)
  • Grass species (Caroline Lehmann and Sivu Situngi), savanna restoration (Wayne Twine and Casey Ryan)
  • Deaf education (Rachel O’Neill and Claudine Storbeck)

Teaching and learning

Wits Edinburgh Sustainable African Futures (WESAF) Doctoral Programme

The Wits-Edinburgh Sustainable African Futures (WESAF) doctoral programme, in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program, aims to provide research training to equip students (primarily academics already holding tenured positions) to complete interdisciplinary doctoral research on areas related to sustainability in the African continent. 

Wits Edinburgh Sustainable African Futures (WESAF) Doctoral Programme

Edinburgh Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program September School

We ran our two-week summer school for Phase One of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program at Wits in Johannesburg and Wits Rural, in September 2022, with Wits’ Dean of Students Jerome September, and Head of Wits Rural Prof Wayne Twine. Future September Schools can build on this model.

Undergraduate exchange

In July 2022 the first two Edinburgh students taking part in a formal Wits-Edinburgh exchange programme, Liam Jack and Lucas Fraser-Taliente, visited Geography at Wits. 

Split-site PhDs

In December 2021 Albert Sharra was awarded a Commonwealth Split-Site Scholarship for his PhD studies in Politics at Wits with Prof Joel Quirk and the Centre of African Studies (CAS) at Edinburgh.  

Staff & resources

Since 2019, the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) at Edinburgh has offered an African Fellowship specifically for Wits researchers. Each Fellow spends time researching at Edinburgh.

As of 2023, Wits will offer a Wits Rural Research Fellowship for one UoE colleague to spend 2-3 months based at Wits’ rural campus and also to spend time at Wits in Johannesburg.

Related articles

Seed funding strengthens ties between Edinburgh and Wits

Witwatersrand awards Centennial Fellows to Edinburgh researchers

University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg

This article was published on