CENTENNIAL REFLECTIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT-OF-MINING-ENGINEERING AT THEUNIVERSITY-OF-THE-WITWATERSRAND

On the one-hundredth anniversary of the founding of the South African School of Mines, this paper presents a historical review of the tertia ry mining education carried out by the School of Mines in Kimberley an d the subsequent institutions in johannesburg, In addition to recordin g and evaluating a century of mining education, it describes the curre nt activities of the Department of Mining Engineering at the Universit y of the Witwatersrand, which is believed To be the natural successor to the School of Mines. The comparison of earlier and contemporary aca demic mining activities reflects a gradual transition from the educati onal philosophy and objectives of a school of mines to those of a mode rn university department, In the conclusions, some aspects of the educ ational effort expended during the past hundred years are briefly high lighted.