Stellenbosch University

Stellenbosch University (formally University of Stellenbosch; Afrikaans: Universiteit van Stellenbosch) is a leading public research university situated in the town of Stellenbosch, South Africa. Other nearby universities are the University of Cape Town and University of the Western Cape. Stellenbosch University designed and manufactured Africa's first microsatellite, SUNSAT, launched in 1999. Stellenbosch University was the first African university to sign the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities. The students of Stellenbosch University are nicknamed 'Maties'. Some claim the term arises from their maroon rugby colours: a tamatie is the Afrikaans translation for tomato. It is more likely to come from the Afrikaans colloquialism maat originally used diminutively by the students of the University of Cape Town's precursor, the South African College.

History:

The origin of the university can be traced back to the Stellenbosch Gymnasium, which was founded in 1864 and opened on 1 March 1866. The first five students matriculated in 1870, but capacity did not initially exist for any tertiary education. However in the 1870s the Cape Colony's first locally-elected government took office and prioritised education. In 1873, four of the five 1870 matriculants became the institution's first graduates by attaining the "Second Class Certificate" through distance learning, and the gymnasium's student numbers rose to over a hundred. In 1874, a series of government acts provided for colleges and universities, with generous subsidies and staff. A personal intervention by the Prime Minister in the same year ensured that Stellenbosch qualified, after initially being allocated to be purely a secondary school. Later in 1874, the institution acquired its first Professor and in the coming few years its capacity and staff grew rapidly. Its first academic senate was constituted at the beginning of 1876, when several new premises were also acquired. The first M.A. degree (in Stellenbosch and in South Africa) was completed in 1878, and also in that year, the Gymnasium's first four female students were enrolled.

The institution became the Stellenbosch College in 1881 and was located at the current Arts Department. In 1887 this college was renamed Victoria College; when it acquired university status on 2 April 1918 it was renamed once again, to Stellenbosch University. Initially only one university was planned for the Cape but after the government was visited by a delegation from the Victoria College, it was decided to allow the college to be a university if it could raise £100,000.290-1 Jannie Marais, a wealthy Stellenbosch farmer, bequeathed the money required before his death 1915.291 There were certain conditions to his gift which included Dutch/Afrikaans having equal status to English and that the lecturers teach at least half their lectures in Dutch/Afrikaans and by 1930 very little if any tuition was in English. In December 2014, specialists at the university performed the first successful penis transplantation, on a 21-year-old man.

Location:

Stellenbosch, South Africa's oldest town after Cape Town, is a university town with a population of about 90,000 (excluding students). It is located about 50 kilometres from Cape Town and is situated on the banks of the Eersterivier ("First River") in the famous wine-growing region and is encircled by picturesque mountains. Teaching at Stellenbosch University is divided between the main campus in Stellenbosch, the Tygerberg campus (where the Faculty of Health Sciences is situated), the Bellville Park campus (where the University of Stellenbosch Business School (USB) is situated), and the Saldanha campus (housing the Faculty of Military Science at the Military Academy of the South African National Defence Force).

Facilities and Services:

The J.S. Gericke Library has collections scattered around the campus outside of the main facility, and all of which are catalogued on a computerised database, using the university's original mainframe, a UNIVAC. There are several other satellite libraries servicing the different faculties, including the Theology Library, Law Library and Tygerberg Medical Library. Stellenbosch University also has a Conservatory, with two concert halls. The Conservatory is the home of the internationally acclaimed Stellenbosch University Choir, who, along with being the oldest South African choir have received numerous awards overseas. The university also has a 430-seat theatre, known as the H.B. Thom Theatre and an open air amphitheatre. Accompanying these facilities is the university's own drama department, under the guidance of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. The department regularly puts on plays, dramas, productions, cabarets and musicals.

The Stellenbosch University Botanical Garden is the oldest university botanical garden in South Africa. The Langenhoven Students' Centre (Neelsie) houses the Student Representative Council, a food court, a cinema, a post office, a shopping centre, an advice office and all the student societies' offices. Student bands and various entertainment and activity promotions usually appear in the main food court during lunch hour. The university has its own radio station known as MFM (Matie FM), situated in the Neelsie. It broadcasts over the entire Stellenbosch area at 92.6 FM. Broadcasting a mix of music, news, entertainment and campus news. The university also distributes regular publications, Die Matie (appearing every fortnight), for its students and Kampusnuus (appearing monthly) for its staff. An official yearbook, Die Stellenbosch Student, is published annually and presented to all graduating students. Matieland is the name of the official alumni magazine. It is published twice a year and distributed to some 100 000 alumni and friends of the University.

Student Housing:

Stellenbosch had 34 residence halls (Afrikaans: koshuise) in configurations for women only, men only and mixed gender. Each residence is supervised by a warden (koshuisvader or koshuismoeder), assisted by a House Committee of senior students. The House Committee assists students with security, maintenance, and social programs. Each residence incorporates a laundry room and a common living room. Residences for women have a communal lounge while several men's residences include a pub.

The number of available rooms in university residences is limited, which requires some students to find private boarding. Students in private lodgings can join the Private Students' Organisation (PSO), also known as Private Wards. There are 6 PSO wards, and a student is assigned according to the location of their lodgings in Stellenbosch. Students who commute to the university are assigned to one of two mixed-gender wards. As of 2008, four new PSO wards had been commissioned.