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Corporate Relations

History

The University of KwaZulu-Natal was formed on 1 January 2004 as a result of the merger between the University of Durban-Westville and the University of Natal. The new university brings together the rich histories of both the former Universities.

The University of Durban-Westville was established in the 1960s as the University College for Indians on Salisbury Island in Durban Bay. Student numbers throughout the 1960s were low as a result of the Congress Alliances’ policy of shunning apartheid structures. This policy gave way in the 1980s to a strategy of “education under protest” which sought to transform apartheid institutions into sites of struggle. Student numbers grew rapidly and in 1971, the College was granted University status. The following year, the newly-named University of Durban-Westville moved into its modern campus in Westville and was a site of major anti-apartheid struggle. UDW became an autonomous institution in 1984, opening up to students of all races.

Founded in 1910 as the Natal University College in Pietermaritzburg, the University of Natal was granted independent University status in 1949 owing to its rapid growth in numbers, its wide range of courses and its achievements in and opportunities for research. By that time, the NUC was already a multi-campus institution, having been extended to Durban after World War 1. The distinctive Howard College building was opened in 1931, following a donation by Mr T B Davis, whose son Howard Davis was killed during the Battle of Somme in World War I. In 1946, the government approved a Faculty of Agriculture in Pietermaritzburg and, in 1947, a Medical School for African, Indian and Coloured students in Durban.

The two KwaZulu-Natal universities were among the first batch of South African institutions to merge in 2004 in accordance with the government’s higher educational restructuring plans that will eventually see the number of higher educational institutions in South Africa reduced from 36 to 21. Confirmed by a Cabinet decision in December 2002, the mergers are the culmination of a wide-ranging consultative process on the restructuring of the Higher Education Sector that began in the early 1990s.

Vision

To be the Premier University of African Scholarship.

Mission

A truly South African University of Choice that is academically excellent, innovative in research, entrepreneurial, and critically engaged with society.

Values

UKZN aims to establish a value-driven organisational culture that empowers the Institution and its people to achieve institutional goals. The guiding values are Respect, Excellence, Accountability, Client Orientation, Honesty, and Trust – represented as R.E.A.C.H.T The behaviour and actions of everyone at UKZN will, accordingly, demonstrate:

  • Respect: UKZN undertakes to promote mutual respect, courtesy, and inclusiveness.
  • Excellence: UKZN undertakes to display quality, leadership and energy in all that it does.
  • Accountability: UKZN promises to be responsible and accountable in the behaviour displayed towards all its stakeholders.
  • Client Orientation: UKZN undertakes to satisfy the needs of all its clients, stakeholders and partners, on a consistent basis.
  • Honesty: UKZN promises to deliver with integrity – steadfastly and with adherence to good governance.
  • TrustT: The ‘T’ symbol after reacht refers to the principle of ‘trust’ that underpins all of the other institutional values. The implicit trust enjoyed by every member of UKZN and their well-defined actions that embrace the R.E.A.C.H.T values, are the important ingredients of the moral fibre of the Institution.

Goals

The goals of the University are:

  1. To achieve excellence in teaching and learning
  2. To achieve excellence and high impact in research, innovation and entrepreneurship
  3. To Promote high-impact societal and stakeholder Community engagement
  4. Targeted Internationalisation
  5. Institution of Choice for Learners:
    To establish the University as an institution of choice that values students in all their diversity and has a student-centred ethos, providing students with curricula, teachers, infrastructure and support services designed around their needs and producing well-educated, competent, sought-after graduates.
  6. Institution of Choice for Staff:
    To establish the University as an institution of choice that attracts and retains academic and support staff of the highest calibre by creating an intellectual environment that fosters and stimulates academic life, and a climate of organisational citizenship in which all staff recognise and understand their role in ensuring the success of the University.
  7. Efficient and Effective Management:
    To establish and maintain efficient, effective management systems and processes that provide a caring and responsive service to meet internal and external needs in a pragmatic and flexible manner.