The University of the Witwatersrand, or Wits for short, is a large residential university in Johannesburg. The University would go on to become a recognized center for higher education and research in the years and decades that followed its modest beginnings, generating alumni with international acclaim in many fields, including Nobel laureates.

Wits University is highly known for its commitment to social justice, high academic standards, and exceptional research.

Any institution’s principal objective is to promote independent thought and the pursuit of knowledge and truth. Wits have earned its position by establishing itself as a top-tier teaching and research institution in South Africa’s commercial and industrial heartland. Wits’ mission is to build on this foundation while acknowledging its current responsibilities in South Africa, as well as to maintain and strengthen its position as a premier institution of higher learning in those countries, as well as in Africa and the rest of the world, by upholding internationally competitive standards of excellence in research, teaching, and learning. Wits University is honored to play that role both locally and globally. It meets the evolving demands of a democratic South Africa and celebrates and represents the region’s cultural variety from its central location in Gauteng. Because of its good academic reputation and uncompromising dedication to battling social injustice, it has attracted foreign students and scholars.