University of Oxford head invites South Africans to apply
THE VICE-CHANCELLOR of the University of Oxford is encouraging South African students to apply to the institution and says an international study experience is invaluable.
Professor Andrew Hamilton is on a visit to South Africa to see some of the many collaborations between Oxford academics and their South African counterparts as well as to connect to alumni in South Africa.
He said the visit also coincided with the centenary of the Oxford University Press and, while he was in the country, would be meeting and encouraging students to apply to Oxford. “In education in the 21st century an international experience, whether it’s undergraduate or at graduate time, is invaluable. South Africa especially looks out on to the wider world and students having experience of other cultures, experience in very deeply international universities like the University of Oxford, really is an invaluable experience.”
He said there were more than 1 000 Oxford alumni in South African and about 100 South Africans studying at the university. “The experience in Oxford is a very special one. Oxford education has a strong emphasis on a personal form of education at the undergraduate level, that’s through tutorials, and at the graduate level with close interaction with academics.”
There were nearly 1 000 scholarships available that South African students would be eligible for.
Hamilton said he had visited UCT on Monday, adding that there were “wonderful” collaborations between academics from the two institutions.
He was also planning to visit a research project in King William’s Town, collaboration between Oxford and SA academics, studying the effectiveness of different programmes in the Eastern Cape to reduce child abuse in families.
He said the debate around the Rhodes statue at UCT had reminded him that universities were and should be places of free debate, “lively debate and often highly contentious debate”.
When he met with students from the Mandela Rhodes Scholarship programme, the demonstrations and debate at UCT had also been on their minds.
He said the decision of what happens to the statue had to be made by UCT, its faculty and students, who would all be part of the debate.
“That being said, for me, what is also very important to remember in the broader debate is that education is a fundamental underpinning of a civilised society. It is only through education, in my opinion, that society advances in every form. And the support that Cecil Rhodes gave to education was of valuable consequence that education is supported. And we should seek to expand and increase the involvement of benefactors all over the world to commit to education and research.”