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1960s
Largest part of what is currently the UWC campus was an informal settlement
UWC was established in 1959 as the University College of the Western Cape. It was established in line with the state policy of the time which enforced rigid racial segregation. In terms of these policies, UWC was supposed to be a training facility exclusively for students classified as being part of the Coloured population. Today UWC is surrounded by mostly low-cost housing and industries, but in those days the University found itself in an uninhabitable and inhospitable part of greater Cape Town, far from important amenities and ill-served by public transport.
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