Rhodes University

Rhodes has six faculties, listed below:

• Humanities (1952)
• Commerce
• Law
• Science
• Education
• Pharmacy

The six faculties are further subdivided into 30 academic departments, of which 11 form part of the humanities faculty. The humanities faculty, being the largest in the university, consists of 40% of the student intake of undergraduate and postgraduate studies, enrolling 2669 students as of 2009.[11]

Rhodes University operates a Law Clinic, which operates as a firm of attorneys providing training to law students and free legal services for indigent people.[12] The Law Clinic operates from two offices, one in Makhanda and one in Komani. The Law Clinic came to national attention in July 2013 when it represented 15 members of Nelson Mandela's family in their litigation against Mandla Mandela (Nelson Mandela's grandson) concerning the location of family grave sites.[13][14]

Rhodes admitted 1592 students in 2012.

The tables below show the racial and gender composition of the university for that year.

Rhodes holds fourteen of the national research chairs appointed under the South African Research Chairs Initiative. This accounts for approximately 7% of the total awarded nationally in South Africa, a significant proportion given the university's small size.[18]

• Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproduction: Human and Social Dynamics (Catriona Macleod)
• Marine Ecosystems (Christopher McQuaid)
• Radio Astronomy Techniques and Technologies (Oleg Smirnov)
• Medicinal Chemistry and Nanotechnology (Tebello Nyokong)
• Mathematics Education (Marc Schafer)
• Numeracy (Mellony Graven)
• Intellectualisation of African Languages, Multilingualism and Education (Dion Nkomo)
• Insects in Sustainable Agricultural Ecosystems (Steve Compton)
• Interdisciplinary Science in Land and Natural Resource Use for Sustainable Livelihoods (Charlie Shackleton)
• Marine Natural Products Research (Rosemary Dorrington)
• Biotechnology Innovation & Engagement (Janice Limson)
• Global Change Social Learning Systems Development: Transformative Learning and Green Skills Learning (Heila Lotz-Sisitka)
• Geopolitics and the Arts of Africa (Ruth Simbao)
• Molecular and Cellular Biology of the Eukaryotic Stress Response (Adrienne Edkins)

• Allan Webb Hall
• Courtenay-Latimer Hall
• Desmond Tutu
• Hugh Masekela Hall
• Drostdy Hall
• Founders Hall
• Hobson Hall
• Solomon Mahlangu Hall
• Miriam Makeba Hall (formerly Kimberley Hall East)
• Kimberley Hall West
• Lilian Ngoyi Hall
• Nelson Mandela Hall
• St Mary Hall

There are three student newspapers, Activate, The Oppidan Press and Cue, which has been published daily during the National Arts Festival held in Makhanda every year for several decades. Activate celebrated its 65th birthday in 2012, while The Oppidan Press was only first published in 2007 with its target readership being mainly Oppidans. The journal Philosophical Papers is edited in the department of philosophy.

• Matthew Muir – Artist
• Beth Diane Armstrong – Sculptor
• Diane Awerbuck – Writer
• Norman Bailey – Opera singer
• Nick Binedell – Founding director of the Gordon Institute of Business Science of the University of Pretoria
• Troy Blacklaws – Novelist
• Alex Boraine – Politician; academic; co-founder of IDASA (Institute for Democracy in South Africa) and the International Center for Transitional Justice
• Sir Rupert Bromley, 10th Bt. – Business executive
• Guy Butler – Poet
• Efemia Chela – writer
• Tafadzwa Chitokwindo – Zimbabwe Sevens rugby player
• Nan Cross – Anti-conscription and anti-apartheid activist
• Achmat Dangor – Writer
• Embeth Davidtz – Actress
• Rob Davies – Minister of trade and industry of South Africa
• Mick Davis – Businessman, chief executive of Xstrata
• Geoffrey de Jager – Philanthropist and industrialist; founder of Rand Merchant Bank
• K. Sello Duiker – Novelist and screenwriter
• Sir Michael Edwardes – Business executive
• Robin Esrock – Travel Writer
• Allan Gray – Investor and philanthropist
• Mluleki George – ANC MP and former prisoner on Robben Island
• Igle Gledhill – Physicist
• Chris Hani – Former leader of the South African Communist Party and chief of staff of Umkhonto we Sizwe
• Errol Harris – Philosopher
• Trevor Hastie – Statistician
• Peter Hinchliff – Anglican priest and academic
• Humphry Knipe – Adult film writer/director
• Herbert Kretzmer – Fleet Street journalist and lyricist of inter alia the musical Les Misérables
• Alice Krige – Actress
• Margaret Legum – Economist and anti-apartheid activist
• Frances Margaret Leighton – Botanist
• Kai Lossgott – Interdisciplinary artist
• Mbuyiseli Madlanga – South African Constitutional Court judge
• Mandla Mandela – Chief of the Mvezo Traditional Council and grandson of Nelson Mandela
• The Hon Justice Lex Mpati – Judge President of the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa and current chancellor of Rhodes University
• Patrick Mynhardt – Actor
• Marguerite Poland – Writer
• Ian Roberts – Actor
• Michael Roberts – Historian
• Kathleen Satchwell – Judge
• Sir Basil Schonland – Scientist
• Barry Smith – Musician
• Ian Smith – Former Prime Minister of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe)
• Wilbur Smith – Novelist
• William Smith – Television science and mathematics personality
• Kaneez Surka – Artist, actor and comedian
• Robert V. Taylor – Former dean of St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral, Seattle
• Phumzile van Damme – MP and Shadow Communications Minister
• Max Theiler – Virologist, Nobel prize winner (1951)
• Micheen Thornycroft – Zimbabwe Olympic rower
• Kit Vaughan – Emeritus professor of biomedical engineering at UCT
• David Webster – Social anthropologist and anti-apartheid activist
• Mark Winkler – Author
• Timothy Woods – Former head of Gresham's School, England
• Dana Wynter – Actress
• Simphiwe Tshabalala[24] – Standard Bank CEO

One of the most well-known departments on the Rhodes campus is the university's school of Journalism and Media Studies, through which many of South Africa's most notable media celebrities have passed. There are also an especially high number of radio celebrities who graduated at Rhodes – many of them having spent time with the university's campus radio station Rhodes Music Radio.

• Matthew Buckland – Media-owner and entrepreneur
• Steve Linde (born 1960) – newspaperman
• Anand Naidoo – Anchor and correspondent for Al Jazeera English based in Washington DC; previously with CNN
• Jeremy Mansfield – Radio host, television presenter, comedian
• Eusebius McKaiser – Social activist, author, radio show host[25]
• Haru Mutasa – Correspondent for Al Jazeera International
• Zaa Nkweta – Former Carte Blanche presenter
• Verashni Pillay – Mail & Guardian editor-in-chief
• Toby Shapshak – Journalist and African technology thought leader
• Barry Streek – Political journalist and anti-apartheid activist
• Rob Vember – 5FM DJ[26]

• Prof Thomas Alty FRSE – physicist; Principal and Vice Chancellor of the university
• Margaret Ballinger – Political activist; taught in the history department
• André Brink – Writer
• Andrew Buckland – Performer and playwright
• Julian Cobbing – Professor of African history; wrote an influential and controversial theory on the nature of the Mfecane
• Ward Jones – Professor of philosophy
• Don Maclennan – Professor of English and notable poet
• Catriona Ida Macleod, head of the psychology department
• Obie Oberholzer – Photographer
• D. C. S. Oosthuizen – Philosopher, Christian, critic of apartheid
• Selmar Schonland – Botanist
• J.L.B. Smith – Ichthyologist; first to identify a taxidermied fish as a coelacanth, a fish previously thought to be extinct
• H.W. van der Merwe – Founder of the Centre for Intergroup Studies, University of Cape Town
• Etienne van Heerden – Writer
• Arthur Matthews (mathematician), founding professor at the university
• Graham Glover - Author, Associate professor, editor of the South African Law Journal