Originally established in 1959 as an ethnic college for coloured students, the university now provides facilities for more than 12 000 students across 68 departments and 16 institutes, schools and research centres.
Based in Tygerberg, just north of Cape Town, the university has faculties of arts, community and health sciences, dentistry, economic and management sciences, education, law, and natural sciences. UWC is dedicated to the research and development of free and open-source software. It is the only African member of the Open Courseware Consortium.