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Our Strategic Partners

A strategic partnership is a formal  institutional partnership that facilitates achievement of Wits’ mission and one or more of its strategic objectives and/or priorities, in particular in research, teaching and learning and engagement with society. It Involves multi-disciplinary programmes that cut across at least two faculties, or two schools in different faculties, unless one faculty or one school within a faculty is a sole national, regional or international leader in a particular field or programme. This definition excludes school or faculty level partnerships that could be considered strategic only for a particular school or faculty, but not necessarily for the whole university. The definition does however allow school and faculty based partnerships to be classified as being of strategic nature if they facilitate the achievement of broader university objectives. The designation of a partner as a Strategic Partner requires the approval of the university’s Senior Executive Team. The list is reviewed annually.

Brookhaven National Laboratories
  • Joint publications 2019 -2023 = 375
  • Major fields:
    • Physics and Astronomy
    • Engineering
    • Mathematics

We have a Memorandum of Agreement which allows Wits staff and students access to the beam lines on the cyclotron at BNL and our postgraduate students can register for online courses at BNL at no cost.

City of Johannesburg

We have a Memorandum of Understanding with the COJ through which the university does targeted research for divisions in the city and provided training for city staff members. We also use the city’s clinics for training of our health science students. We have partnered with the city in creating the Tshimologong Precinct – a digital hub that is based in Braamfontein.

European Civic University Alliance (CIVIS)
  • Joint publications 2019 -2023 = 1052
  • Major fields:
    • Physics and Astronomy
    • Engineering
    • Medicine
    • Planetary and Earth Science
    • Immunology and Microbiology

This is a network of 9 European universities. We are exploring mechanisms to work with them on various formal projects and will sign a Memorandum of Agreement soon with the view of collaborating in the areas of Health, Cities, territories and mobilities, Digital and Technological transformation, Climate, environment and energy, and Society, culture, heritage.

Fudan University
  • Joint publications 2019 - 2023 = 27
  • Major fields:
    • Medicine
    • Physics and Astronomy
Gauteng Provincial Government

We host the Gauteng City Region Observatory (a partnership that also involves the University of Johannesburg) which carries out various research projects for the province. We also partner the province in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site. We use various provincial hospitals and schools for training of our health science and educations students.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
  • Joint publications 2019 – 2023 = 58
  • Major fields:
    • Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
    • Immunology

We have a Memorandum of Agreement through which staff are doing collaborative research in the areas of Science and Engineering.

National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)
  • Joint publications 2019 – 2023 = 15
  • Major fields: Mathematics

We have a Memorandum of Agreement that allows for staff and student exchanges and collaborative research.

Peking University
  • Joint publications 2019 – 2023 = 33
  • Major fields: Medicine
Queens University Belfast
  • Joint publications 2019 – 2023 = 27
  • Major fields: Medicine

We have a Memorandum of Agreement through which staff do collaborative research. We have jointly funded 6 Seed Funding projects in the areas of Health Science, Physical Science and Engineering.

Tsinghua University
  • Joint publications 2019 – 2023 = 19
  • Major fields:
    • Physics and Astronomy
    • Engineering
    • Medicine
University College London (UCL)
  • Joint publications 2019 – 2023 = 340
  • Major fields:
    • Medicine
    • Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

We have a Memorandum of Agreement through which staff collaborates in a number of fields. We have jointly funded 18 Seed Funding projects in the areas of Health Science, Physical Science, Humanities, Engineering and the Built Environment.

University of Edinburgh (UoE)
  • Joint publications 2019 – 2023 = 120
  • Major fields:
    • Physics and Astronomy
    • Engineering
    • Medicine

We have a Memorandum of Agreement through which staff collaborates in a number of areas. We have jointly funded 5 Seed Funding projects in the areas of Health Science, Humanities and Physical Science.

University of Limpopo
  • Joint publications 2019 – 2023 = 87
  • Major fields:
    • Medicine
    • Agriculture and Biological Science

We have a Memorandum of Agreement through which staff collaborate in a number of areas. We also have articulation agreements that allows their Physics and Geology graduates entry into the 3rd year of certain engineering programs.

University of Venda
  • Joint publications 2019 – 2023 = 47
  • Major fields:
    • Environmental Science
    • Agricultural and Biological Sciences

We have a Memorandum of Agreement through which staff collaborates in a number of areas. We also have articulation agreements that allow the Geology graduates entry into the 3rd year of our mining engineering programs. We also collaborate on a number of rural projects that are run from the Wits Rural Facility.

Vanderbilt University
  • Joint publications 2019 – 2023 = 73
  • Major fields:
    • Medicine
    • Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Staff at the two universities collaborate in the areas of Heath and Biological Science.

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