beautiful university in south africa 2024-2025

beautiful university in south africa 2024-2025

Universities in South Africa are among the most beautiful public structures in the country. With our roll call of higher ed beauties, take a tour around Mzansi in mortarboard and robes.

 University of Cape Town, Upper Campus

• The University of Cape Town began in 1829 as the South African College, a boys’ high school. In 1928, the university was able to relocate the majority of its facilities to Groote Schuur, on the slopes of Devil’s Peak, on land bequeathed to the nation by Cecil John Rhodes as the site for a national university, where it celebrated its centennial the following year.
• The Groote Schuur campus of the University of Cape Town was built in the classical revival style and, along with its open spaces, constitutes the original campus as designed by architect JM Solomon in 1918. Herbert Baker restored the building in 1894 when it was the focal point of an avenue of trees that ran up the hillside from Rustenburg House and was replanted with plumbago japonica, jacaranda, and turkey oaks at the request of Cecil John Rhodes. A section of it, known as Japonica Walk, has been preserved to this day.

2. Stellenbosch University  

• The university can be traced back to the Stellenbosch Gymnasium, which opened on March 1, 1866, and later became the Stellenbosch College, which was located at the current Arts Department. This college was renamed Victoria College in 1887, and when it gained university status on April 2, 1918, it was renamed Stellenbosch University once more. The university campus is low-rise and easy to navigate by foot or bike, and it is located in the heart of South Africa’s wine country.

3. University of Pretoria, Old Arts Building

• The University of Pretoria was founded in 1908 as the Pretoria Centre of the Transvaal University College. The university’s colloquial name, Tuks or Tukkies, was derived from the college’s acronym, TUC.
• The college began as an English language institution housed in Kya Rosa, a four-bedroom residential property in Pretoria’s center. TUC began with four professors, three lecturers, and 32 students enrolled. Dutch and other Modern Languages, English Language and Literature, Classics (including Philosophy, Latin, and Hebrew), and Natural Sciences were all covered.
• On 10 October 1930, a Parliamentary act championed by General Jan Smuts resulted in the name TUC becoming the University of Pretoria. The University had over 900 students at the time, making it the largest tertiary institution in the country. UP now has over 50 000 students and has established itself as one of the leading higher education institutions.

4. University of the Witwatersrand

• The South African School of Mines was established in Kimberley in 1896. In 1904, the school was relocated to Johannesburg and renamed the Transvaal Technical Institute. In 1906, the school’s name was changed yet again to Transvaal University College. In 1908, Transvaal University College established a new campus in Pretoria.
• On May 17, 1910, the Johannesburg and Pretoria campuses separated, each becoming a separate institution. The Johannesburg campus was renamed the South African School of Mines and Technology, while the Pretoria campus was known as the Transvaal University College until 1930 when it was renamed the University of Pretoria. The school was renamed University College, Johannesburg in 1920. Finally, the University College, Johannesburg, was granted full university status on March 1, 1922, after being incorporated as the University of the Witwatersrand.
• The Johannesburg municipality donated a site for the new institution’s campus in Milner Park, north-west of Braamfontein, and construction began the same year, on 4 October.

5. University of the Free State

• The long-held dream of establishing a higher education institution in the Free State became a reality in 1904 when Grey College accepted its first matriculants for a full B.A. course. Grey College’s tertiary division was renamed Grey University College (GUC) in 1906, but the school and college split up soon after. The Orange River Colony’s Parliament passed legislation in 1910 making the GUC an official educational institution in the fields of the Arts and Sciences.
• Initially, English was the medium of instruction, but this was later changed to bilingual and included Afrikaans. The name was changed to the University College of the Orange Free State—the Afrikaans version of this name change is the source of the term used to refer to University students (“Kovsies”) to this day. The medium of instruction was changed to Afrikaans in the late 1940s. In 1950, the University was declared a full-fledged, independent university, and its name was changed once more to the University of the Orange Free State.

6. University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, Howard Campus

• It began as the Natal University College in Pietermaritzburg in 1910 and expanded to include a Durban campus in 1931. The Howard College campus in Durban was built along the Berea, a ridge north of the city center. During apartheid, the university’s Durban campus was known for the activism of its staff and students against government-imposed racial segregation.
• Many of its students were members of the often-banned NUSAS (National Union South African Students) in the 1970s and 1980s, which was centered on the Howard College campus’ main arts center. Furthermore, the university magazine Dome (named after Howard College’s dome) was active against apartheid and was frequently banned, with the printing press being moved around to avoid confiscation by police. The college residences briefly boycotted the food hall in 1980 due to the food supply contractor FEDICS’s unfair treatment of black staff. On January 1, 2004, the University of Natal merged with the University of Durban-Westville to form the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

7. Rhodes University

• Rhodes University (RU or simply Rhodes) is a public research university in Grahamstown, South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province, founded in 1904. It is the province’s oldest university and one of the province’s four universities. It is the fifth or sixth oldest South African university still in operation, following the University of the Free State (1904), the University of Witwatersrand (1896), Stellenbosch University (1866), and the University of Cape Town (1866). (1829).
• Rhodes University College, named after Cecil Rhodes, was established in 1904 with a grant from the Rhodes Trust. In 1918, it became a constituent college of the University of South Africa, and in 1951, it became an independent university. The university enrolls over 7,000 students, approximately 3,000 of whom live on campus in various residences, while the remaining students (known as oppidans) live in digs (off-campus residences) or in their own homes.

NMMU New Engineering Building

8. Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

• Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) is a tertiary education institution in South Africa, with its headquarters in the coastal city of Port Elizabeth. NMMU was founded in January 2005 by the merger of three institutions, but its history dates back to 1882 with the establishment of the Port Elizabeth Art School.
• International students from all over the world attend the university. Students from the United States, France, China, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and many African countries make up the over 3000 international students. NMMU is a comprehensive university that provides professional and vocational education. The University of Port Elizabeth has five campuses and one in George. The South Campus is the main campus. Students at NMMU can pursue diplomas and degrees all the way up to and including doctoral degrees. Workplace experience is required as part of the curriculum for a number of courses.

 9. University of the Western Cape

• The University of the Western Cape is a public university in the Cape Town suburb of Bellville, South Africa. The South African government established it in 1960 as a university for people of color only. Other nearby universities include the University of Cape Town (UCT, which was founded for English-speaking whites) and Stellenbosch University (originally for Afrikaans speaking whites).
• The Extension of University Education Act of 1959 had a direct impact on the establishment of UWC. This law resulted in the separation of higher education in South Africa. Only a few non-white universities accepted colored students. Other ‘ethnical’ universities, such as the University of Zululand and the University of the North, were also established during this time period. It has been an integrated and multiracial institution since well before the end of apartheid in South Africa in 1994.

10. UNISA

• In 1873, the University of the Cape of Good Hope (UCGH) is founded. According to education minister FS Malan’s university legislation, the UCGH was incorporated into Unisa and became the first examining university in 1918. A ‘federal’ system linked other university colleges to Unisa, which was in charge of national examinations. In downtown Pretoria, Registrar William Thomson and four assistants established a small presence. In 1919, Unisa awarded 138 degrees to six colleges for examination candidates.
• Between 1921 and 1952, the affiliated university colleges broke away to form the independent universities of the Witwatersrand, Pretoria, Natal, the Free State, Rhodes, and Potchefstroom. AJH van der Walt, a Potchefstroom professor, was hired in 1944 to investigate correspondence education. He established the Division of External Studies in 1946, amid much controversy. Between 1947 and 1973, it was housed in more than ten different buildings in Pretoria. The University of South Africa Act of 1959 gave Unisa control over institutions that provided tuition to students taking Unisa examinations. The majority of correspondence colleges were closed down by Unisa.
• In 1959, Unisa established the world’s first correspondence university, employing study guides, cassette tapes, and limited face-to-face instruction. Finally, in the mid-1960s, fundraising for the stunning Muckleneuk Hill campus (pictured) began. It was finally finished in the late 1980s in a heroic Modernist style.

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