The Rand Afrikaans University (RAU) was a prominent South African institution of higher education and research that served the greater
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
area and surroundings from 1967 to 2004. It has since merged with the Technikon Witwatersrand and two campuses of Vista University to form the
University of Johannesburg
The University of Johannesburg (UJ) is a public university located in Johannesburg, South Africa. The University of Johannesburg came into existence on 1 January 2005 as the result of a merger between the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), the Te ...
.
Origins
On 5 November 1968, 468 delegates at a conference unanimously accepted a motion to establish an Afrikaans University. An act of Parliament was promulgated on 4 August 1965 to establish such a university in Johannesburg.
Rand Afrikaans University (RAU) was founded as an
Afrikaans language
Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch dialects, Dutch vernacular of Holland, Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German set ...
university in 1967 with just over 700 registered students. The first campus was situated in a brewery in
Braamfontein
Braamfontein (English: ''blackberry spring'', or more prosaicly ''blackberry springs''; also known as Braam) is a central suburb of Johannesburg, in South Africa, seat of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and some of South Africa's major c ...
.
The RAU was officially opened on 24 February 1968. The first chancellor of the University was Dr
Nicolaas Diederichs
Nicolaas Johannes "Nico" Diederichs (17 November 1903, Ladybrand – 21 August 1978) served as the third state president of South Africa from 1975 to 1978.
Education and career
After completing school, he attended Grey University College betw ...
(then Minister of Finance of South Africa) and the first rector was Prof
Gerrit Viljoen
Gerrit Van Niekerk Viljoen (11 September 1926 in Cape Town – 29 March 2009) was a South African government minister and member of the National Party.
He was chair of the Broederbond from 1974 to 1980, Administrator-General of South West ...
.
The first women's residence was named "Amper Daar" (Almost there) and the first hostel for men "Afslaan" (Tee off), after the golf course on which it was built.
Over time the university evolved to a dual medium institution, offering nearly all degree courses in both Afrikaans and English.
Faculties
The faculties of the RAU were as follows:
*Faculty of
Commerce
Commerce is the large-scale organized system of activities, functions, procedures and institutions directly and indirectly related to the exchange (buying and selling) of goods and services among two or more parties within local, regional, nation ...
and
Economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...
*Faculty of
Law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
*Faculty of
Science
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
*Faculty of
Engineering
Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...
*Faculty of
Arts
The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both hi ...
*Faculty of
Health Sciences
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to health sciences:
Health sciences are those sciences which focus on health, or health care, as core parts of their subject matter. Health sciences relate to multiple acad ...
*Faculty of
Education and Nursing
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Vari ...
Location
What was the main campus is now the APK
Kingsway Campus Auckland Park
Kingsway Campus Auckland Park, also known as APK, is the largest and most populated of the four campuses of the University of Johannesburg. It is also the seat of the administration and governance body of the university. The campus was formerly t ...
of the
University of Johannesburg
The University of Johannesburg (UJ) is a public university located in Johannesburg, South Africa. The University of Johannesburg came into existence on 1 January 2005 as the result of a merger between the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), the Te ...
(UJ) and is situated in
Auckland Park
Auckland Park is a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. It lies on a gentle slope, and is in close proximity to the suburbs of Melville, Brixton, Westdene and Richmond. Auckland Park is one of the few suburbs close to the Johannesburg city c ...
,
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
. Satellite campuses in
Auckland Park
Auckland Park is a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. It lies on a gentle slope, and is in close proximity to the suburbs of Melville, Brixton, Westdene and Richmond. Auckland Park is one of the few suburbs close to the Johannesburg city c ...
,
Soweto
Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...
and
Doornfontein
Doornfontein is an inner-city suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa, located to the east of the city centre, Region 8.
History
The area, whose name means "thorn fountain", was originally the southern part of a farm owned by Frederick Jacobus Bez ...
are now APB, DFC and SWC campuses of UJ.
Leaders
Rector of the University
Chancellor of the University
Merger
On 1 January 2005, Rand Afrikaans University,
Technikon Witwatersrand
The Technikon Witwatersrand was a technikon located in Johannesburg, South Africa. On 1 January 2005, it merged with Rand Afrikaans University and the Soweto and East Rand campuses of Vista University to form the University of Johannesburg. The fo ...
and some campuses of the
Vista University
Vista University, South Africa was established in 1981 by the apartheid government to ensure that urban black South Africans seeking tertiary education would be accommodated within the townships rather than on campuses reserved for other populatio ...
ceased to exist as such, when they merged to become the
University of Johannesburg
The University of Johannesburg (UJ) is a public university located in Johannesburg, South Africa. The University of Johannesburg came into existence on 1 January 2005 as the result of a merger between the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), the Te ...
, as part of a broader reorganisation of South African universities. The outgoing and final vice chancellor of the University was Prof Roux Botha.
References
Afrikaner culture in Johannesburg
Universities in Gauteng
Schools in Johannesburg
Defunct universities and colleges in South Africa
Educational institutions established in 1967
Educational institutions disestablished in 2005
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