The History of Unisa
The examining university
The University of the Cape of Good Hope (UCGH) is established in 1873. The UCGH was incorporated into Unisa, and became the first examining university in 1918, in terms of education minister FS Malan’s university legislation.
A ‘federal’ system linked other university colleges to Unisa, which was responsible for examinations nationally. Registrar William Thomson and four assistants established a tiny presence in downtown Pretoria. In 1919, Unisa issued 138 degrees to six colleges for candidates undergoing examination. The affiliated university colleges broke away between 1921-1952 to become the independent universities of the Witwatersrand, Pretoria, Natal, the Free State, Rhodes and Potchefstroom.
The correspondence university
Potchefstroom professor AJH van der Walt was hired in 1944 to look into correspondence education. He launched the Division of External Studies in 1946 amidst great controversy. Between 1947-1973 it operated from more than 10 buildings in Pretoria.
The University of South Africa Act of 1959 gave Unisa the say over institutions that provided tuition to students that sat for Unisa examinations. Unisa shut down most correspondence colleges.
In 1959 Unisa became the world’s first correspondence university, using study guides, cassette tapes and limited face-to-face tuition.
In other developments: The Unisa Foundation was created for a major fundraising campaign for the buildings on Muckleneuk Hill (1965); excavations began in 1967; JJ Glück, the HoD of Semitics, suggested the use of the audio-visual teaching in 1968; Unisa relocated to Muckleneuk Hill and Eugene van Heerden set up a one-man publishing office, the forerunner of Unisa Press (1973); the first academic building at Muckleneuk was named after then VC Theo van Wijk (1981); the library in the Samuel Pauw building was opened (1988), rapidly becoming one of the finest in Africa and the first 100 years of music examinations were celebrated (1994).
The distance university
The 1997 Higher Education (HE) Act insisted HE meet both individual education and societal developmental needs. Education minister Kader Asmal stated Unisa would merge with Technikon Southern Africa and Vudec, to form a dedicated distance education institution.
Justice President Bernard Ngoepe became Unisa’s first black chancellor in 2001 and Prof Barney Pityana became Unisa’s first black Principal and Vice-Chancellor (2001-2010). Unisa’s merger process began with the signing of a joint declaration and a MoU on 27 August 2003.
In 2005, 10 faculties were collapsed into five colleges: Human Sciences; Law; Agriculture and Environmental Sciences; Economic and Management Sciences; and Science, Engineering and Technology. The same year the 2015 plan pledged Unisa’s co-operation with the African Union, the Southern African Development Community, the Association of African Universities and the African Council on Distance Education. Unisa’s vision: ‘towards the African university in the service of humanity’.
The Akaki campus (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) opened in 2007 with seven staff. Within three years it had more than 5000 students at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.
In 2008 Unisa announced Africanisation would go beyond partnerships with African bodies to promote African scholarship and would include curriculum content embedded within African IKS yet relevant to the global context. That year the Young Academics Programme was launched.
Towards the online university
In 2009: the Directorate of Student Admissions and Registrations developed, and implemented, a technology-driven registrations process; the Institutional Repository was launched; Prof Ngambi became the first woman executive dean of CEMS and Unisa celebrated five years post merger.
In 2010 Unisa’s university anthem was created and the Unisa library purchased its two millionth item; Sunnyside conference hall became the Enoch Sontonga Concert Hall, and the Eski’a Mphahlele registration hall was opened.
Prof Mandla Makhanya, Principal and VC from 2011, introduced ‘servant leadership’, the Unisa Living Green project and the Signature Curriculum Project. Unisa was the first South African university to sign the UN Global Contract. The new Education college was up and running, as was a major Organisational Architecture project overseen by PVC Prof Narend Baijnath.
By 2012 Unisa hosted several research chairs: the Unesco African Chair in Open and Distance Learning; the Exxaro Chair in Business and Climate Change; the Primedia Chair in Holocaust and Genocide Studies and the SARChl NRF South African Research Chair in Development Education.
In 2013, with more than 350 000 students, Unisa is well on its way to becoming the online African university. The year also marks a monumental achievement as the university celebrates its 140th anniversary. The theme for the anniversary is 140 years of shaping futures to highlight how the university has helped ordinary South Africans achieve their dreams of obtaining quality education.
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