University of the Western Cape

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University of the Western Cape

Other names	Bush, uDubs
Motto	Latin: Respice Prospice
Motto in English	"Look Ahead"
Type	Public university
Established	1959; 65 years ago (1959)
Academic affiliations	ACU, CHEC, HESA, IAU
Chancellor	Thabo Makgoba
Vice-Chancellor	Tyrone Pretorius
Students	23,000+ (2023) [1]
Undergraduates	15,840
Postgraduates	6,160
Location	Robert Sobukwe Road, Bellville, Western Cape , South Africa
Campus	Urban setting
Mascot	Bushie
Website	www.uwc.ac.za

The University of the Western Cape (UWC; Afrikaans: Universiteit van Wes-Kaapland) is a public research university in Bellville, near Cape Town, South Africa. The university was established in 1959 by the South African apartheid government as a university for Coloured people only. Other universities in Cape Town are the University of Cape Town (originally for English-speaking whites), Cape Peninsula University of Technology, and Stellenbosch University (originally for Afrikaans-speaking whites). The establishing of UWC was a direct effect of the Apartheid-era Extension of University Education Act, 1959. This law accomplished the segregation of higher education in South Africa. Coloured students were only allowed at a few non-white universities. In this period, other "ethnical" universities, such as the University of Zululand and the University of the North, were founded as well. Since well before the end of apartheid in South Africa in 1994, it has been an integrated and multiracial institution.