Having long played the role of collaborators with other, more renowned, institutions, historically disadvantaged South African universities are now challenging the status quo — and emerging

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for the MANuS/MatSci Honours/Masters programme by the National Research Foundation of South Africa and financial assistance by the South Africa–CERN collaboration. We also thank K.

Bharuth-Ram, U. Bawa, M. Orce and A. Garciolo for proofreading this manuscript and providing a historical background to the development of science in South Africa. GAMKA is supported by the

National Research Foundation of South Africa (Strategic Research Equipment Grant Number: 114668), and by contributions from the consortium iThemba LABS, Stellenbosch University, University

of the Western Cape, University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Zululand. AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of the

Western Cape, Bellville, South Africa José Nicolás Orce * National Institute for Theoretical and Computational Sciences (NITheCS), Stellenbosch, South Africa José Nicolás Orce * Department

of Physics and Engineering, University of Zululand, KwaDlangezwa, South Africa Sifiso Ntshangase Authors * José Nicolás Orce View author publications You can also search for this author

inPubMed Google Scholar * Sifiso Ntshangase View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to José Nicolás Orce.

ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS The authors declare no competing interests. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Orce, J.N.,

Ntshangase, S. Young African universities take the lead. _Nat. Phys._ 17, 1187–1189 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-021-01397-8 Download citation * Published: 28 October 2021 * Issue

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