About UP Faculty of Agricultural and Natural Science

The Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences consists of 13 departments specialising in highly relevant programmes in the Biological, Mathematical, Physical as well as Agricultural and Food Sciences.

The internationally acclaimed institutes, centres and units that are aligned to the Faculty address global challenges, such as sustainable energy, safe water, biodiversity and conservation, climate change and natural disasters, through a range of multidisciplinary research programmes.

The breadth and diversity that this Faculty has to offer, as well as the currently well-recognised fields of excellence, provides for immense potential to further advance our research profile.

The University of Pretoria has its origins in the establishment of the Pretoria Centre of the Transvaal University College in 1908. The colloquial name of the university, Tuks or Tukkies, was derived from the acronym of the college – TUC.

The college opened its doors as an English language institution housed in Kya Rosa, a four-bedroom residential property in the centre of Pretoria. TUC started off with four professors and three lecturers and 32 enrolled students. Courses were presented in Dutch and other Modern Languages, English Language and Literature, Classics (which included Philosophy, Latin and Hebrew), as well as Natural Sciences.