Rand Afrikaans University

Rand Afrikaans University   (University)
Formation	1968
Extinction	2004
Type	Public university
Apartheid deep politician Gerrit Viljoen was first rector.

The Rand Afrikaans University ( RAU ) was an Afrikaans institution for higher education and research that served Johannesburg and the surrounding area. The university was established in 1967 and dissolved in 2004 to form a new university, namely the University of Johannesburg.

Its first rector was professor Gerrit Viljoen, the deep politician who led the Afrikaner Broederbond.

History

The University was created as part of the Apartheid government's drive to make Afrikaans the leading national language. In South Africa as a whole, the percentage of English speakers who matriculated or obtained an academic degree was twice as large as the percentage of Afrikaans speakers.

It became clear to Afrikaner leaders in the 1950s that higher education institutions had to be set up within easier reach of Afrikaans speakers in the Rand-area to enable after-hours study for students who already pursued a career, and full-time study for students who still lived at home.

While local communities outside Johannesburg also insisted on the establishment of an Afrikaans university, the then Apartheid government's policy was to expand existing white institutions for tertiary education to meet the growing needs rather than establishing new universities. Only with the announcement on 13 February 1963 of the establishment of a new, bilingual university in Port Elizabeth was this policy amended.

It was also proposed to negotiate with the University of South Africa (Unisa) to move its seat from Pretoria to Johannesburg to perform a dual function there - that of a residential Afrikaans university and that of an external university. The government's reluctance to set up completely new universities could thus be circumvented.

On August 4, 1965, the then Minister of Education, sen. Jan de Klerk, announced that the cabinet had decided that Unisa's seat would remain in Pretoria and gave its consent to the proposed establishment of an independent Afrikaans-medium university for the Witwatersrand with its seat in Johannesburg.

The first students applied for registration on 3 February 1966, and on 24 February of that year the official opening of the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU) with just over 700 registered students and the inauguration of its first chancellor (the then Minister of finances and later third State President of the Republic of South Africa), Dr. Nicolaas Diederichs, tool place. The first rector was prof. Gerrit Viljoen.

Over time, the university became a dual-medium institution offering almost all courses in Afrikaans as well as English.

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