University of KwaZulu-Natal

The university was formed by the merger of the University of Natal, and the University of Durban-Westville, in 2004.
The main clock tower of Old Main Building, located on the Pietermaritzburg campus.
University of Natal

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The university is governed in accordance with the Higher Education Act, and the constitution of the university is specified in the Statute of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, as approved by the South African Minister of Education and the Parliament of South Africa.

In terms of the statute, the university consists of:

    the chancellor (the titular head). The first chancellor of the merged university was Dr Frene Ginwala. It is currently Dr Zweli Mkhize.
    the vice chancellor (the executive head)
    two or more deputy vice chancellors (currently there are five full and one acting)[8]
    the registrar (responsible for registering students)
    the council (responsible for governance of the institution as a whole)
    the senate (responsible for governance of academic activities)
    the students representative council (responsible for students representation)
    the institutional forum (responsible for advising the council on matters of human rights and equality)
    the colleges (currently there are four)
    the academic and support staff
    the students
    the convocation (all the alumni and some others)

Academic structure

In terms of academic subdivisions, the university is made up of four colleges, which are in turn made up of several schools.[9] In most cases, a subdivision is spread across one or more of the university's geographical campuses. For example, the Chemistry is located across both Pietermaritzburg and Westville campuses.

College of Agriculture, Engineering and Science

    School of Engineering
    School of Agricultural, Earth and Environmental Sciences
    School of Chemistry and Physics
    School of Life Sciences
    School Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science

College of Health Sciences

    School of Clinical Medicine
    School of Laboratory Medicine & Medical Sciences
    School of Health Sciences
    School of Nursing & Public Health


College of Humanities

    School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics
    School of Arts
    School of Social Sciences
    School of Applied Human Sciences
    School of Built Environment and Development Studies
    School of Education


College of Law and Management Studies

    Graduate School of Business and Leadership
    School of Accounting, Economics and Finance
    School of Law
    School of Management, IT and Governance

An institute build in cooperation with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute is the new Kwazulu-Natal Research Institute for Tuberculosis and HIV, opened in 2012. It is located at the Nelson Mandela School of Medicine campus.
Campuses

The University is geographically divided into 5 distinct campuses, which partially correspond to managerial and academic divisions of the university. Two campuses (Edgewood and the Medical School) house specific academic divisions (education and medicine respectively), but the remainder of the universities academic divisions are spanned across Howard College, Pietermaritzburg and Westville.
Pietermaritzburg campus

Pietermaritzburg campus was the main location of the University of Natal and its predecessor, the Natal University College, until the opening of the Howard College campus in Durban. This campus contains the university's oldest structure, Old Main Building, built in 1912. Pietermaritzburg campus offers a broad range of academic degrees, and is the only UKZN campus providing training in agriculture, theology and fine arts.
Howard College campus

Howard College campus was the Durban location of the University of Natal until the 2004 merger. It spans the Berea Ridge. Howard College offers a wide range of degrees, with some teaching divided between there and Westville.
Westville campus

Westville campus is located in and environmental conservancy in Westville, about 20 km West of Durban. It was formerly the site of the University of Durban-Westville before the 2004 merger. Westville offers a range of degrees, and will soon be the main home of the disciplines of commerce and management.
Nelson Mandela medical school

Nelson Mandela medical school campus was originally a racially segregated part of the University of Natal, created in 1950. It was one of the few tertiary institutions legally allowed to provide education to black people under apartheid. It was granted Nelson Mandela's name on its 50th anniversary in 2000. The medical school is the home of health sciences.
Edgewood campus

Edgewood campus is located in Pinetown, east of Durban. The buildings originally formed the Edgewood College of Education, which was incorporated into the University of Natal in 2001. Edgewood is the main location of the university's Faculty of Education.

Ranking

UKZN was ranked third in South Africa, and in the 401–500 range worldwide by the Academic Ranking of World Universities in 2010.

UKZN's website was ranked sixth out of university websites in South Africa (and 1,051st worldwide) in the January 2011 edition of the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities.
See also: Rankings of universities in South Africa and Rankings of business schools in South Africa
Controversies
Main article: Controversies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal

There have been a number of controversies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal since its foundation.

Firstly, there have been several staff strikes and student strikes, with some strikes from 2009 onward involving police intervention and the use of riot control measures, as well as violence on the part of some strikers.

Secondly, there have been a series of legal and disciplinary actions taken by senior university management against academics for speaking in public about the university. These actions have drawn wide criticism, both from academics and from organisations such as Cosatu and UNESCO.They were also the cause of a 2008 staff strike.