UCT is one of three South African universities to get grants of US$2-million each (about R12,4-million) over three years from the Carnegie Corporation of New York to further transformation initiatives among academic staff.

These projects will work to attract, train, retain and promote a new generation of South African academics, including more black and female scholars, while developing new university cultures aligned with national goals.

The Universities of KwaZulu-Natal and the Witwatersrand were also chosen after a review process.

"These three universities are institutions of excellence and have international reputations for scholarship and teaching," said Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corporation. "We believe that supporting these institutions to build a corps of national scholars will not only continue the universities' growth and excellence, but over time will serve society itself by ensuring that South Africa's best and brightest students become its leaders of tomorrow."

"This new South African university strategy aligns our work in the country with what the corporation is doing to strengthen universities in other African nations," said Narciso Matos, chair of the corporation's International Development Programme. "As many of the great teachers and scholars at these three universities face retirement, programmes at each university will seek to fill their ranks with young black and female scholars who will be nurtured, mentored and offered incentives to build careers at their home universities."

Other foundations joining the corporation on what is called UCT's "transformation interventions" include Atlantic Philanthropies, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Ford and Andrew W Mellon Foundations.

Courtenay Sprague, a Carnegie Corporation programme associate who is managing the South African university programme, said: "We view these three institutions as agents of change that will build intellectual capital within the universities, ultimately transforming the higher education system in South Africa."