Let’s Talk About Varsity
A free guide to university in South Africa
Welcome to the free online edition of Let’s Talk About Varsity. First published in 2009 by Gabbema Books, it is a practical, generous guide for anyone thinking about going to university in South Africa – and for anyone already there who wants to make the most of it.
The book brings together some of the country’s most experienced academics, deans and public figures. Each writes plainly about their own field or their own hard-won advice, across four themes: getting started, making the right choice of degree, making the most of university, and making your world a better place. I edited the volume with Willem Fourie; the chapters belong to the contributors who wrote them.
More than fifteen years on, the prospectuses have changed but the questions have not: Why university? What should I study? How do I cope, budget and lead? And what is it all for? I am making the book free to read here because those questions still matter, and because good advice should not go out of print.
How to read this book
- Use the sidebar to move between the four parts and their chapters, or the search box (top of the sidebar) to find any topic, field of study or name.
- Each chapter is a self-contained essay by its contributor; read in any order you like.
- Prefer paper? Download the full original edition as a PDF using the button above.
- Toggle reader mode (top-right) for a distraction-free view.
How to cite this edition
Fourie, Johan and Willem Fourie (eds). Let’s Talk About Varsity. Gabbema Books, 2009. Free online edition, johanfourie.com/LTAV. Accessed [date].
About this edition. Let’s Talk About Varsity was first published in 2009 by Gabbema Books. This online edition reproduces the book’s content chapters and is free to read and download. © Johan Fourie and the individual contributors; each chapter remains the work of its named author. The original interview features (“Seven questions to …”) are not included in this online edition.