Wits University is situated in Johannesburg, South Africa - a vibrant, leading commercial city on the African continent. The origins of Wits University lie in the South African School of Mines, which was established in Kimberley in 1896 and transferred to Johannesburg as the Transvaal Technical Institute in 1904, becoming the Transvaal University College in 1906 and renamed the South African School of Mines and Technology four years later.
Over the years, the University of the Witwatersrand became internationally recognised for academic excellence and extensive research activities. Wits was the first South African university to have a nuclear accelerator, to have a computer, to study building materials and early Afrikaans, to produce a systematic climatological atlas of Southern Africa and to achieve a successful graft of plastic cornea. It was also the first blood transfusion service in the Union of South Africa was started by Wits medical students.
