Following two years of virtual graduation ceremonies due to COVID-19, Rhodes University is to hold physical ceremonies for over 2000 graduands from 06 April, with numerous firsts in the line-up.

Last week, Rhodes Business School (RBS) has launched the Entrepreneurial and Technological Empowerment Programme (ETEP).

On 15 March 2022, Kingswood College held its annual Neil Aggett memorial lecture, which was presented by Rhodes University honorary doctorate (2008) Jonathan Shapiro, also known by his pen name ‘Zapiro’.

The Rhodes University Faculty of Law kicked off its 2022 academic year by hosting a faculty opening event. The event was attended by staff, students and the guest of honour, Mr Mbuso Mtshali, an alumnus of the Rhodes University Law Faculty and the Head of Corporate Governance and Company Secretariate of Sanlam.

A long-serving Rhodes University Board of Governors member and Chairperson, Mr Mike Spicer, passed away this week.

Rhodes Business School has launched two programmes for Rhodes University staff members to better prepare and develop them in supervision and management roles.

It will be a spectacular weekend at Rhodes University from Friday, 04 March 2022 to Sunday 06 March 2022, when the opening games of the Varsity Shield take place at Rhodes University Great Field.

Professor Rod Walker from the Rhodes University Faculty of Pharmacy has been named the recipient of the prestigious 2021 Vice Chancellor’s Distinguished Award for Community Engagement. He describes this honour as “a wonderful recognition of the many who supported, facilitated and assisted in ensuring the success of the sanitiser project”.

In an article published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, Rhodes University PhD student Aviwe Matiwane shows, along with six other researchers, how colonial history and global economics distort our understanding of deep-time biodiversity.

A festive atmosphere and scenes of jubilation and excitement characterised the return of students and staff to campus at Rhodes University as hundreds of first year students reported for registration over the weekend. Returning students are expected back this week.

The South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) has released a new MeerKAT telescope image of the centre of our Galaxy, showing radio emission from the region with unprecedented clarity and depth. The international team behind the work is publishing the initial science highlights from this image in The Astrophysical Journal. The lead author, Ian Heywood, is a Rhodes University Visiting Professor, and the second author, Isabella Rammala, is a Rhodes University PhD student.

Rhodes University hosted a symposium to reflect on the two decades since the Language Policy for Higher Education (LPHE) was adopted in 2002.

Rhodes University congratulates the matric class of 2021 for showing their mettle as the future of humanity and making it against all odds in the face of unsettling circumstances wrought by the unpredictable COVID-19 pandemic during their critical milestone year.

The Rhodes University Enactus team recently reached the 2021 MTN ICT Challenge's finals. This was a unique competition and collaboration between Enactus and MTN to develop digital services to address socio-economic challenges in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Rhodes University student Marina Khoza, who will be graduating with a distinction in MSc (Botany) this year, was part of a team that won a $5000 cash prize for its Africa THINKS indigenous knowledge teaching solution at the Business of Conservation Conference (BCC) in Rwanda last year.

A group of radio astronomers led by the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics has conducted a multi-frequency and multi-band study of the Shapley Supercluster, where the formation of large structures is ongoing at the present cosmological age.

Prof Roy Sargeant, who was appointed Head of Speech and Drama at Rhodes University in 1973, passed away at the end of 2021. In addition to establishing the University's reputation as one of the premier drama training schools in South Africa, Prof Sargeant co-founded the National Arts Festival in 1974 with Prof Guy Butler. He was also integral to the creation of the Student Drama Festival and the Standard Bank Young Artists Awards.

A collaboration between Rhodes University astronomers, University of Cape Town (UCT) and Swinburne University of Technology (SUT) based in Melbourne, Australia, has resulted in a discovery of a mysterious chain of hydrogen gas clouds with the size of a massive galaxy through the South African MeerKAT radio telescope. The international team is led by an Astronomer from the Max-Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy and Rhodes University visiting Professor Gyula Józsa, SUT’s Professor Michelle Cluver, and Professor Thomas Jarrett from UCT.

South Africa’s coalition negotiations after the November 2021 election were full of unexpected plot twists. November’s news reporting reveals clear, almost cartoonish characterisations of our largest three parties emerging from a backdrop of extremely complex negotiations and a soap-opera-worthy web of love-hate relationships.

The word corruption has its roots in the Latin adjective corruptus which refers to something that is spoiled, corrupted or perverted. In South Africa, evidence of the perversion of public funds abounds. In his 2021 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement the country’s finance minister Enoch Godongwana warned that rampant corruption was a persistent issue draining public finances.