When people think of groundbreaking global research, they often imagine vast laboratories and large-scale institutes. Yet, tucked away in the small town of Makhanda, a small team at Rhodes University is quietly reshaping global conversations about sexuality, health, and reproductive justice.

“We believe that we need a lot more scientists and a lot more people who are numerate in our society,” says Joyce Sewry, Senior Lecturer in the Chemistry Department at Rhodes University.

Rhodes University has joined forces with three very different institutions: Mangosuthu University of Technology, the University of Venda and private provider Eduvos, in a partnership now formalised under the University Capacity Development Programme (UCDP). What started as a shared conviction has become a clear, ambitious plan: to formalise community-based methods of teaching and research.

Rhodes University has marked a milestone in its research journey with the conferral of the institution’s first practice-based PhD in Fine Art, awarded to Dr Raphaela Linders.