UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA

UNISA’s roots go back over 130 years, which makes it the oldest university in South Africa. The University of the Cape of Good Hope, which changed its name to the University of South Africa in 1916, was initially an examining body. In other words, it offered examinations but not tuition, and it had the power to confer degrees on successful candidates. The renaming of the institution in 1916 ushered in a number of important changes. UNISA moved its headquarters from Cape Town to Pretoria, and although it continued to be an examining body, it also incorporated a number of university colleges which later became fully autonomous teaching universities. By 1944, a new vision of the institution as a teaching university was beginning to emerge and, in 1946, Professor AJH van der Walt was asked to investigate the possibility of devising a system of postal or correspondence tuition for non-residential students. On 15 February 1946, the Division of External Studies was established. This transformed UNISA into a teaching university that became the pioneer of tertiary distance education in the Western world. For the next five decades or so, UNISA steadily built up an international reputation as an affordable, credible, accessible and flexible distance education institution. Recognition of this international stature came in 2002 when UNISA was accredited by the Accrediting Commission of the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC) in the United States. After 1994, UNISA began a period of internal transformation, in step with South Africa’s transition to democracy. Some of the important milestones in this process included: the inauguration in 2001 of UNISA’s first black Chancellor, Justice President Bernard Ngoepe, Judge President of the Transvaal Division of the High Court of South Africa; the appointment, also in 2001, of Professor Barney Pityana as UNISA’s Principal and Vice Chancellor; and the renaming of UNISA’s buildings to reflect the advent of democracy. Technikon Southern Africa Technikon SA began its life as Technikon RSA on 1 April 1980 as the off-shoot of Technikon Witwatersrand’s correspondence wing. It was established to provide correspondence-type education for police learners at tertiary level - something which no other technikon or university offered. The Technikon was then situated in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. By 1989, when the institution moved to the Florida campus, the Technikon began to offer a diversity of programmes which catered for management, business and science, and the 1990s proved to be a decade of dynamic change for the institution. In August 1993, the Technikon launched its new name, Technikon SA, and was empowered to confer degrees. In 1994, TSA introduced its model of Integrated Learner-Centred Distance Education (ILCDE) which aimed to provide quality learner support. In July 2000, TSA constituted its first Institutional Forum and on 15 November 2002, inaugurated Dr Neo Mathabe as the first black woman to the position of Principal and Vice Chancellor. Vista-VUDEC Vista University was initially designed to help in-service primary school teachers to upgrade their teaching qualifications. It soon became apparent, however, that secondary school teachers also needed a means to upgrade their teaching qualifications. As a result, VUDEC (the Distance Education arm of Vista University) was called into being. It is interesting to note that all students, irrespective of whether they were contact or distance education students, received the same study material.

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