Our mission is to be an outstanding teaching and research university, educating for life and addressing the challenges facing our society.

Educating for life means that our educational process must provide:

a foundation of skills, knowledge and versatility that will last a lifetime, despite a changing environment

• research-based teaching and learning
• critical enquiry in the form of the search for new knowledge and better understanding, and
• an active developmental role in our cultural, economic, political, scientific and social environment.

Addressing the challenges facing our society means that we must come to terms with our past, be cognizant of the present, and plan for the future.

In this, it is central to our mission that we:

recognize our location in Africa and our historical context

• claim our place in the international community of scholars
• strive to transcend the legacy of apartheid in South Africa and to overcome all forms of gender and other oppressive discrimination
• be flexible on access, active in redress, and rigourous on success
• promote equal opportunity and the full development of human potential
• strive for interdisciplinary and inter-institutional collaboration and synergy, and
• value and promote the contribution that all our members make to realizing our mission.