They're in high demand, but South Africa is battling to produce accounting professionals in adequate numbers, particularly from black communities. To improve both the quantity and quality of accounting professionals such as chartered accountants, auditors, financial managers and tax experts coming through the system, and more importantly, to help transform the profession, UCT's Department of Accounting is ringing in some changes this year. Read more...

UCT's Law, Race and Gender Unit (LRG) has called for new legislation to replace the controversial Traditional Courts Bill. Introduced by government in 2008, the bill was withdrawn from the National Assembly last year after pressure from opponents. Its imminent reintroduction in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) was announced in mid-December, giving rural people two months to submit their comments by 15 February. Read more...

FNB UCT's title defence got off to the worst possible start with a 10-38 loss to the University of the Free State's Shimlas in the opening round of the 2012 Varsity Cup on Monday, 6 February. The Ikeys were punished for a litany of missed chances and unforced errors as the players from Bloemfontein outscored them by four tries to two. Read more...

UCT orientation headed down the homestretch with O-Week kicking off on Monday with the plaza baraza, and a whole string of side events. Despite the mercury pushing unbearable, there was a pool of cool societies and clubs strutting their stuff to potential new members. Read more...

Grants from the US's National Institutes of Health (NIH) are sought-after treasures, but the application procedures are exacting. To improve the success rate and management of grant applications from Africa, the NIH is in 2012 funding a series of training workshops. Two of these will involve UCT and three other African universities - Mbarara University in Uganda, Moi University in Kenya and the University of Zambia (UNZA). Read more...

In what's now become business as usual, the UCT GSB's full-time MBA programme has yet again moved up the ranks (by six places to 54th spot) in the Financial Times (FT) of London's Global MBA Top 100 released in January. This is the eighth consecutive year the school has been listed. Read more...

The Parents' Orientation events are meant to assure parents and care-givers that their children will be in good hands at UCT. This assurance carries more weight when it comes from a senior student like Mike Ramothwala, Students' Representative Council (vice-president: external). Ramothwala was addressing this year's event for out-of-town parents on 31 January. (The first Parents' Orientation, for local parents, was held on 28 January.) Read more...

UCT welcomed thousands of students into its midst on 1 February as the bulk of the university's orientation programmes kicked off. After the humanities and commerce faculties had set the tone with their programmes last week, the majority of the expected 4,200 new first-year students got their first taste of life as a UCT student today. Read more...