Stellenbosch, the country's oldest town, has from
very early on had a significant involvement in the history of education
in South Africa. As early as 1685, when the Dutch Reformed Church
founded its second parish here, a beginning was made with regular
school instruction. By the 1840s the Cape Colony was operating
a system of centrally controlled Public Schools, along the lines
advocated by Sir John Herschel. (The famous astronomer's advice
and active support had been obtained while he was out here on a
research visit.)
Under this system, Stellenbosch was recognized
as a divisional centre for education. Another of the town's notable
older educational institutions was started in November 1859, namely
the Theological Seminary of the Dutch Reformed Church. Meeting
in the nearby Old Reading Room in December 1863, thirty public-spirited
inhabitants of the Stellenbosch district committed themselves to
collecting a certain sum for the establishment of a gymnasium within
five years. They achieved their objective well ahead of time.
In 1866 under the new Education Act the local Public School was reorganized
as a First Class Public School, also to be known as the Stellenbosch Gymnasium.
In 1873 the then Board of Examiners was replaced by the Examining University
of the Cape of Good Hope. This new university set steadily increasing standards,
thereby creating a demand for more advanced teaching. To help meet the new
demand, the Stellenbosch Gymnasium in 1874, under the Higher Education Act,
set up its own professorial division. This, called the Arts Department, may
be regarded as the germ of the present Faculties of Arts and Science.
Initially
it consisted of the Rector (the Rev Charles Anderson) and two professors, namely
Prof A MacDonald for the Classics and English Literature and Prof G Gordon
for Mathematics and Physical Science. The pupils at the Gymnasium in 1874 totalled
120, with the Third Class Examination (the later matriculation examination)
being passed by 9 candidates and the Second Class Examination (the later BA
examination), by 4.
In 1879 the town of Stellenbosch celebrated its two-hundredth anniversary;
in commemoration it was resolved to erect a large and suitable College building
to house the Arts Department. Sir Bartle Frere, visiting Stellenbosch at this
time, took a warm interest in the project, which he promised to recommend to
the government. The Prime Minister, Sir Gordon Sprigg, supported the proposal,
and Parliament voted £3 000 towards the cost of the new building, conditional
on a like amount's being raised by public subscription. The foundation stone
of the new building was laid by the Administrator, Sir George Cumin Strachan,
on 22 December 1880.
In 1881 the Arts Department received its charter as a College, and by a special
Act of Parliament the status and the constitution of the Stellenbosch College
were conferred upon it. It was provided at the same time that the Gymnasium
should remain under the control of the College Council. The new building was
completed and taken occupation of in phases. The formal opening took place
on 6 November 1886. In 1887, the jubilee year of Queen Victoria's reign, Her
Majesty graciously consented to the College's name being changed to the Victoria
College of Stellenbosch.
The institution of an agricultural course in connection
with the College had been discussed in 1882, and in the new building special
provision was made for the study of agricultural chemistry. In 1887 the Agriculture
Department began with five students. In 1898, although the number of agriculture
students had increased to 31, the Agriculture Department was taken away from
the Victoria College and removed to Elsenburg. Twenty years later there was
another reversal of policy, a full Faculty of Agriculture being established
in the new University of Stellenbosch.
The period from 1897 to 1900 was also important on account of the construction
of the Physics Laboratory and the Christian Marais Library, both made possible
by the generosity of the brothers JH and CL Marais. In 1899 the "senior matriculation
class", 44 strong, was transferred from the College to the school, leaving
the Victoria College with 116 fully matriculated "Arts" students. About five
years later a strong movement began among friends and past students of the
College for a further extension of its activity. This resulted in the separation
of the chairs of Philosophy and English Literature, and also of Greek and Latin,
the establishment of chairs in Zoology, Botany and History and, shortly afterwards,
in Applied Mathematics as well.
The question of the training of teachers had been under discussion since 1876.
From 1895 onwards the College made special provision for students who followed
the ordinary degree course but who intended to qualify afterwards for a teacher's
diploma. The fight for a recognized department of Education was carried on
for fifteen years, and in 1911 a Professor of Education was at last appointed.
A new building, designed specifically to meet the requirements of teacher training,
was soon erected. Two years later this was followed by an even larger new building
for four of the natural sciences, to the financing of which the Union government
contributed handsomely. When the Union of South Africa was founded, the problem
of the reform of higher education came up for discussion once again.
Various
commissions appointed in this connection proposed different solutions. All
the proposals were closely concerned with the substantial endowment offered
by Sir Julius Wernher and Mr Otto Beit for the establishment of a teaching
university at Groote Schuur. An act was drafted in terms of which the Victoria
College was to be subordinated to the Groote Schuur project. Thanks, however,
to the aid of friends and alumni of Stellenbosch this bill never became law.
Eventually the government found a solution in greater decentralization; in
place of only one university, it granted charters to three, with their respective
centres at Cape Town, Stellenbosch and Pretoria.
The creation of a university at Stellenbosch was made possible by Mr Jan Marais
of Coetzenburg; to the cause of higher education at Stellenbosch, he had magnanimously
bequeathed the sum of £100 000. The University Act, by which the Victoria College
became an independent university, with all its privileges and duties, was passed
by the Union Parliament in 1916. The number of registered students at the College
in the last year before its promotion to university status was 503. In the
same year the teaching staff numbered 40, 22 of whom were professors and 18
lecturers. The University Act, replacing the Victoria College by the University
of Stellenbosch, came into effect on 2 April 1918. The decades since then have
seen its student numbers grow fortyfold and more, from about 500 to some 22
000.
The University, for its part, has been setting up new and adapting existing
faculties, departments and other academic organs in response to the ongoing
shifts and changes in the country's needs for student training. Thousands have
studied at Stellenbosch and gone on from here to make a valuable contribution
in practical life. Stellenbosch alumni fulfil an important part in numerous
areas of society. Without them, South Africa today would be much the poorer. |
