University of the Cape of Good Hope
South Africa · Africa
About
The University of the Cape of Good Hope (Afrikaans: Universiteit van Kaap die Goeie Hoop) was the first university in South Africa, established in the Cape Colony in 1873. Modelled on the University of London, it was a purely examining body: it set syllabuses and examinations and conferred degrees but did no teaching of its own. For more than four decades it was the central degree-awarding authority for the Cape and the other South African colonies, examining the students of the various colonial "university colleges" and serving as the institution from which most of South Africa's universities are descended. Created by Act 16 of 1873 of the Cape Parliament under the Molteno government, the university received a royal charter from Queen Victoria in 1877 that gave its degrees a standing equal to those of British universities. Following the union of the South African colonies, it was reconstituted by the University of South Africa Act, 1916 as the federal University of South Africa (Unisa), which came into operation in 1918 and moved its seat to Pretoria; the same legislation simultaneously established the University of Cape Town and Stellenbosch University as autonomous teaching universities.
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