UCT’s Summer School, the largest public education programme of its kind in Africa, is dear to the hearts of many alumni. In 2020 it found its natural home in the Development and Alumni Department.

Over 70 years old, Summer School was established to provide education to returning servicemen and women after WWII. Today it continues to make specialised knowledge accessible to a wide audience, regardless of educational qualifications. Summer School now offers several courses online, so that people from all over the world can experience studying at UCT.

In addition to a traditional Summer School which runs for three weeks in January each year, Summer School offers a Winter School in July as well as year-round webinars, short courses, workshops and lectures. These attract thousands of people with courses on a range of topics from arts, humanities and current issues to the physical and environmental sciences.

Summer School contributes to the university's social responsiveness by making academic and university resources available to the general public and by providing learning opportunities that do not involve examinations or certification.

The Summer and Winter School programmes, as well as news of webinars and short courses offered throughout the year, are published on the Summer School website.

Short courses: https://summerschool.uct.ac.za/short-courses

Upcoming events: https://summerschool.uct.ac.za/ems-events-calendar

Applied Complexity Science Course

• Date: View course provider schedule
• Location: Online
• Time: Self-paced

A comprehensive set of readings, case studies, discussions, and insights covering the broad area of complexity science and systems theory.

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Writing Political Speeches

• Date: 30 October to 27 November
• Location: Online
• Time: 18:00–20:00

This course is aimed at those who write speeches for politicians at all levels of government.

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