2025 Summer School: Booking now open
World-renowned South Africans to speak at the 2025 Summer School
UCT Authors at 2025 Summer School
Hot topics in Neuroscience at 2025 Summer School
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Unlocking the mind: exploring the frontier of psychiatric genomics
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The neuroscience of forgiveness
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Magic mushrooms: can they treat mental health disorders?
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Ketamine: revolutionary new treatment for depression or pseudoscience?
Upcoming Events
Welcome to the Centre for Extra-Mural Studies. Our extra-mural education programme is about educational and intellectual activities that enrich the mind. The aim is to stimulate the mind in areas which traditionally is left out of adult formal education. UCT’s Summer School is precisely such a programme. It contributes to the development of an informed citizenry and a culture of democracy. Summer School is a festival of knowledge and ideas where members of the general public experience what it means to be a student of the Universe in the broad sense of the word. In this way our work contributes directly to the university’s obligations to society, one of which is to stimulate critical debate and discussion.
But we also offer, for those who need a more skills or vocationally based course, practical courses in art, language and writing. For more information visit our short course page. Some of us are also challenged by a fast-changing digital world. We also host regular talks on new developments in technology such as Artificial Intelligence, machine learning and coding.
Highlights from the 2024 Summer School
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Robert and Clara Schumann: Very Private Lives
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100 years of radio: Indelible lessons from the airwaves
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‘The secret communications network that helped end apartheid’
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‘Humanity is at a crossroads’
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