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From it's humble beginnings to now being ranked in the top 10 universities in Africa, UWC leaders have credited the UM System partnership as contributing significantly to the university's rise. In particular, UWC: 

• Is the African leader in bioinformatics. The South African National Bioinformatics Institute is one of a small group of comparable top-level centers worldwide, and hosts Africa's only Cray supercomputer. SANBI conducts cutting-edge research in key diseases in Africa. 
• Is a leader in biotechnology, with a special interest in the genetics of life forms that thrive in extreme conditions, and their implications for our understanding of microbial molecular ecology. UWC's Life Sciences building is Africa's finest. 
• Holds the UNESCO Chair in Geohydrology, playing a leading role in networks across Africa focused on water resource research and training. 
• Has the largest and most productive School of Mathematics and Science Education in Africa.  
• Has three World Health Organization collaborating centers for capacity development, teaching and research in dentistry, pharmacology and public health. 
• Has a Center for Humanities Research exploring humanities theory about social and cultural transformation in South Africa and the continent.
• Established an International Relations Committee for the UWC Faculty Senate. In the context of the international cultural and academic boycott that isolated South Africa from the world community during apartheid, this structural change, in turn, led to the adoption of a UWC senate policy on international academic exchanges. 

In 1996, in honor of UMSAEP's 10th anniversary, both South African President Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote letters to Fred Hall, chair of the UM System Board of Curators, and G. Thomas, chairperson of the UWC Council. The letters congratulated both UWC and the ��ҹӰԺ on establishing this successful partnership. 

Letter from President Nelson Mandela

"We have learnt and taken note of the academic relationship that was established between your two fine institutions in 1986 and which has persisted and been maintained with wonderful results over the last decade. We are honoured to add our voice to those many others who will, no doubt, be conveying warmest congratulations to you on a wonderfully enterprising initiative and a successful project. 

"The University of the Western Cape holds a very special place in the hearts and minds of freedom loving South Africans. Its courageous educationally based defiance of the apartheid order and its intellectual challenging of the tenets of that order made a great impact, the fruits of which we are now savouring. The decision of the ��ҹӰԺ to establish links with UWC at that stage was equally courageous and far-sighted. The thousands of South Africans who graduated from UWC over these years and who are not contributing to the reconstruction and transformation of our society, are indebted to UM for becoming partners in the intellectual development of their alma mater. We are confident that from such a partnership, built on equality and reciprocity, the ��ҹӰԺ will have gained equal benefit. 

"It is our hope that this relationship will grow from strength to strength and that it will be maintained for a very long time to come. Strong health traditions are very much part of the quality of academic institutions, and this relationship is establishing itself as such a tradition."

Letter from Archbishop Desmond Tutu

"When in 1986 your institutions had the courage and foresight to forge institutional links amidst the turmoil of apartheid South Africa and the directives of the cultural and academic boycott, we supported your initiatives and gave it our blessing. Today, ten years later, we look back with you on a well-established and mutually fruitful union. We join with you in celebration of this anniversary and warmly congratulate you on its success. 

"In 1986 the University of the Western Cape was already committed to democratic practice on campus and in alignment with democratic and progressive forces both within and outside South Africa. The ��ҹӰԺ had responded creatively and courageously to calls from students and faculty members to address the South African issue. Linking your institutions then meant favourable judgement by each other of your mutual appreciation of and support for the alignment and stand on apartheid respectively, and expressing faith in the favourable outcome of mutual enrichment. 

"Together your two universities have established a programme that is worthy of emulation in its development of mutual understanding and institutional collaboration in teaching, research and service to the community. We trust that this relationship will grow to even greater heights and be sustained by the dedication of those who are willing to be co-workers with the Creator."

Contact the for archived copies of these letters.

In the early years of UMSAEP, faculty exchanges played an important roles in UWC's development. Since 1986, hundreds of outstanding faculty members from both universities have participated in the faculty exchange program, involving more than 40 academic disciplines. They have found the exchanges incredibly rewarding, both professionally and personally. 

UWC participant testimonials

"I cannot assess it highly enough. It was a breakthrough to the international scene. We were, by government design, supposed to remain as parochial as possible. This first agreement (the formality and the intensity) has made a world of difference to our self esteem and strengthened our morale. This has resulted in much stimulation and growth and provided a new perspective to generate ongoing activity. The frequency and the intensity of the visits has had a catalytic effect. It has had a stimulating effect. The openness, frankness and supportiveness of the people with whom I have come in contact has been so pleasant. It has been characterized by an open willingness to share."

"As a researcher, I gained information and contacts otherwise unavailable. I obtained material that led to development of an honors course, a seminar on peace and justice. The overall exchange­ program gave esteem and progress to our staff and contributed to academic excellence. It built confi­dence for people who might never have had contact at the level of real contact with colleagues. The degree, quality and quantity of this program has been profitable."

"The program should be continued because it provides UWC staff an opportunity to visit a university where official politics are secondary. It is good for UM System staff on the other hand to come to UWC to see what a university is like that is in the throes of political change."

UM System participant testimonials

"I believe one hallmark of a successful academic exchange to be the inability to discern which end receives the most benefit — the visitor or the visitee. In the instance of this visit our objective was to teach, but the learning on our part most assuredly matched, if not exceed­ed, that of the participants in the course we taught."

"The University of the Western Cape is a remarkable organization where many outstanding individuals are working hard to fulfill the mission of the institution and thereby to serve the students and the communities from which they come. I am struck by how much we have to learn from the admirable example of dedication and commitment that is lived out day-by-day by our colleagues there. We can learn much from this university about transformation and renewal."

"South Africa is full of contradictions. It was both more hopeful and more horrifying than I had expected--and much more intriguing. I gained respect for the many talented people at UWC doing good work and making hard decisions in a complex environment."