UK couple donate millions to Wits
PHILANTHROPISTS: Prof Aubrey Sheiham and his wife, Dr Helena Sheiham, want to boost South Africa’s research capacity A FORMER student who graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand almost 60 years ago has donated R8.8million to the institution.
Philanthropists Aubrey Sheiham, emeritus professor of dental public health at University College London, and his wife, Dr Helena Sheiham, of the London School of Economics and Political Science, have also pledged to leave a donation to Wits in their wills.
The Sheihams declined to comment on their gift, but Wits’s representative in the UK, Lynda Murray, said they wanted to assist the university in its work in the field of public health. “Aubrey started discussing with us how they could help support our research and . . . develop the capacity of researchers in South Africa.”
She said the donation would support staff from Wits and other Southern African universities who worked in public health to collaborate with the Institute of Health Equity at University College London.
“The money will also support students to do doctorates in the area of the social determinants of health and health inequality. They have been very generous about giving Wits as free a hand as possible,” she said.
Sheiham graduated with a Bachelor of Dental Science degree in 1957.
“It has been an abiding concern of theirs how to help to make the world a fairer place.”
Wits vice-chancellor Professor Adam Habib praised the Sheihams: “It shows us how concerned and caring individuals can make a profound commitment to research for a better future for South Africa.”
An anonymous donor and longtime supporter of Wits donated R100-million to the uni-
They have been generous about giving Wits a free hand
versity in October last year.
Meanwhile, a third-year medical student at Wits, Yannick Leyka, 22, said he would have to take a gap year because he needed to find work so that he could pay off R41 000 in outstanding fees for this year.
“I don’t believe I will be able to pay off the R41 000 this year, so I will have to work and pay off the debt and come back in 2017. It’s extremely demoralising and depressing.”
The Congolese student does not qualify for financial aid from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme because it is only available to South African students.