An overview of university education in South Africa and the founding of the University of Natal
3.1. The University of the Cape of Good Hope
The University of the Cape of Good Hope had its origins in the Board of Public
Examiners in Literature and Science mentioned in the Act quoted above. The Board had been established in 1858 to advance learning “among all classes of Her Majesty’s
subjects”150 and to examine and grant certificates to successful candidates in the fields of Literature and Science, Law and Jurisprudence, Land Surveying, Engineering and Navigation. Candidates were prepared for the examinations at various secondary schools, notably the South African College in Cape Town which has the distinction of being South Africa’s first high school. The Board, according to Boucher, “undoubtedly helped to raise educational standards at the Cape”151 but it had many shortcomings and lacked the status of a full university. Thus a decision was taken to establish a University in the Cape Colony.
The newly established university was an examining body only, with no teaching facilities.
The system adopted was modelled upon the University of London model which, Boucher explains, had become a “popular model for export” due to it being fairly cheap to run and, unlike early 19th century Oxford and Cambridge, religiously neutral.152 By the mid- 19th century similar institutions similar had been established in other parts of the British Empire such as Canada, India and South Africa.
The University of the Cape of Good Hope prescribed courses of study, tested students and granted degrees in Agriculture, Arts, Divinity, Law, and Mining Engineering. It also granted certificates of proficiency in Law and Jurisprudence, Land Surveying, Civil Engineering and Navigation and was responsible for the control of the Junior Certificate and Matriculation examinations, the Civil Service, Law and Teachers’ Professional Certificate Examinations and the examination for entrance to the Public Service. It was, in short “a vast examining machine.”153 Students were prepared for the examinations at various secondary school colleges, such as the aforementioned South African College.
150 Cape of Good Hope, Parliament, Public Examiners’ Act no. 4 of 1858, in Statutes of the Cape of Good Hope passed by the first Parliament, sessions 1854 – 1858, Cape Town: Saul Solomon, 1863, p. 325.
151 M. Boucher, Spes in arduis, Pretoria: University of South Africa, 1973, p. 22
152 M. Boucher, History of the South African university system, in Tertiary education, editor: B.F.
Nel, [Pretoria]: South African Association for the Advancement of Education, 1973, p. 4.
153 Boucher, Spes in arduis, p. 43.
These colleges received grants from Parliament under rules and regulations framed by the governor and published in the government gazette.154 Teachers were precluded from examining their own students. The Higher Education Act of 1873 states firmly that:
It shall be the duty of the council to appoint examiners ... and the said council, in appointing such examiners shall avoid, as much as may be, appointing any person to be an examiner of any candidate who shall have been under the tuition of such examiner at any time during the two years next before the examination.155
The courses were by no means easy and students required stamina and determination in order to succeed. Currey describes the strenuous nature of these examinations:
For this examination [first year Bachelor of Arts] the student had to take at least five subjects; and to do well in it six or even seven, were necessary. But, this hurdle cleared, he had a run of two years before taking his finals ... If one read for Honours this had to be done concurrently with the work for the Pass degree... The requirement for Honours was considerably higher than that for the Pass degree;
and the fact that these had to be, or in practice always were, taken at the same time made the Honours course a grimly strenuous one.156
The University Extension Act no. 9 of 1875 empowered the Council to hold examinations beyond the borders of the Cape Colony, thus enabling people living “beyond the limits of this Colony to participate in certain of the benefits enjoyed by Her Majesty’s subjects within this Colony.”157 In 1877 Queen Victoria bestowed upon the University a Royal Charter which, in theory, granted its degrees the same rank, precedence and
consideration as the degrees of universities in the United Kingdom.158 In 1896 the Cape Legislature passed the University Incorporation Amendment Act (no. 6 of 1896) whereby membership of the Council of the University of the Cape of Good Hope was extended to nominees of the Orange Free State, Natal and the South African Republic on condition that these Governments made an annual contribution towards the general expenses of the University. Natal availed itself of this opportunity in 1897 but the Boer Republics of the Orange Free State and the South African Republic (renamed the Transvaal) did so only after the end of the second Anglo-Boer War, in 1902.
154 Cape of Good Hope, Parliament, Higher Education Act no. 24 of 1874, in Statutes of the Cape of Good Hope, 1652-1905, Cape Town: Cape Times, 1906,vol. 1, p. 1352.
155 Cape of Good Hope, Parliament, The University Incorporation Act no. 16 of 1873, in Statutes of the Cape of Good Hope, 1652-1905, Cape Town: Cape Times, 1906, vol. 1, p. 1288.
156 R. F. Currey, Rhodes University, 1904 – 1970, Grahamstown: [s.n.], 1970, p. 3.
157 Cape of Good Hope, Parliament, University Extension Act no. 9 of 1875, in Statutes of the Cape of Good Hope, 1652-1905, Cape Town: Cape Times, 1906, vol. 1, p. 1362.
158 Boucher, Spes in arduis, p. 40.
In summary, by the time the Union of South Africa159 was formed on 31st May 1910, the University of the Cape of Good Hope had become responsible for examining candidates taught at eight different institutions. In the Cape Colony itself there were four colleges, the oldest of which was the South African College in Cape Town, founded in 1829. The second was the Undenominational Public School, founded in Stellenbosch in 1866, incorporated as a college in 1881 and renamed Victoria College in Queen Victoria’s jubilee year, 1887. The others were the Huguenot Seminary for women, founded in 1874, and Rhodes University College in Grahamstown, founded in 1904.
The Orange River Colony boasted only one college. Founded in 1855 by the Governor of the Cape Colony, Sir George Grey, Grey University College was completely reorganized in 1907 and incorporated as a University College in 1910.
In the Transvaal two colleges arose out of the Technical Institute which had been
established in Johannesburg in 1903, taking over the work of the former School of Mines at Kimberley. The Institute was renamed the Transvaal University College in 1906. The following year a commission appointed by the Transvaal government to investigate the question of higher education in the Transvaal recommended the continuation of technical classes in Johannesburg and the establishment of Science and Arts classes in Pretoria as part of the Transvaal University College. Three years later, in 1910, the Pretoria classes became an independent institution under the name of the Transvaal University College while the Technical section in Johannesburg was renamed the South African School of Mines and Technology.
In Natal university education had a slow start. Post-matriculation classes were already on offer at both the Durban High School and the Pietermaritzburg College when the Natal Technical Education Commission recommended the establishment of a University College in Pietermaritzburg in 1905. Nothing further transpired until the Natal
University College Act no. 18 was promulgated on 11th December 1909 and the Natal University College opened in the following year. The history of university education in Natal is described in greater detail below.160
159 Prior to Union the four colonies – the Cape, Natal, the Orange River Colony and the Transvaal (previously the South African Republic) – were all colonies of the British Empire but were
politically independent of each other.
160 See section 3.3.2.