WSU was particularly uniquely positioned to play a powerful role in the national government's new focus on rural development. Over 25 000 students (6 078 first time candidates) and approximately 2500 staff lived and worked across four campuses with 13 delivery sites in Mthatha, Butterworth, East London and Queenstown. WSU consisted of 89% undergraduate and 4% postgraduate enrolments. The racial composition of students was 99.2% African and 56% were females.