UCT has also joined the Association des Universités Francophones (AUF) in order to strengthen the links between UCT and universities in French-speaking African countries. Through this agreement, the three universities have agreed to foster student and academic exchanges, joint research activities and exchange of academic material.

The agreement is yet another step in a five-year relationship with the French-speaking universities that has already seen two Burkinabè students awarded scholarships by UCT’s National Astrophysics and Space Science Programme (NASSP); they are now busy with their graduate studies.

the three universities have agreed to foster student and academic exchanges.

An additional four students are being supported through their PhD studies: two at Université de Montréal, one at the Université Laval in Québec and one at the Université de Provence in France. When these students return to Burkina Faso, the agreement will allow them to continue world-class research projects in collaboration with researchers at UCT, using large African research facilities like the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT), MeerKAT and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).

Professor Jarrett is a passionate researcher whose interest and expertise focus on the extragalactic large-scale structure and visualisation of the nearby universe, the Zone of Avoidance (the area of the night sky that is obscured by our own galaxy), interacting galaxies, star-formation processes and galaxy evolution. He was well known to the department by the time he joined UCT, having had active collaborations with its various members for many years – even co-supervising, mentoring and hosting UCT postgraduate students in the United States.