Since 1986, the University of Missouri South African Education Program Committee has sponsored an exchange program with the University of the Western Cape in Bellville (Cape Town), South Africa. The formal agreement signed in June 1986 was the first ever between a U.S. university and an historically black South African university.
The UM/UWC Faculty Exchange Program has sponsored more than 365 exchange visits between the two institutions since 1986. More than forty academic disciplines have been represented.
In 1996, the University of Missouri announced a new program, the "New Initiative," designed to support collaborative projects between UM faculty members and a broad range of South African partners, including collaborators from historically disadvantaged tertiary education institutions (including UWC), South African government agencies, nongovernmental organizations in South Africa, or other appropriate South African partners. The first UM projects funded under this program were implemented in 1997. In 1998, the program was renamed the South African Partnerships Program.
