| Rhodes University | |
|---|---|
Rhodes University coat of arms |
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| Motto | Vis, virtus, veritas |
| Motto in English | Strength, courage, truth |
| Established | May 31, 1904 |
| Type | Public |
| Endowment | R429.6 million[1] (US$59.853 million as of 2008[update]) |
| Chancellor | Jakes Gerwel |
| Vice-Chancellor | Saleem Badat |
| Academic staff | 357[2] |
| Students | 7,005[2] |
| Undergraduates | 5,372[2] |
| Postgraduates | 1,633[2] |
| Location | Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa |
| Former names | Rhodes University College |
| Colours | Purple |
| Nickname | Rhodian, Rhodent (informally) |
| Affiliations | AAU, ACU, HESA, IAU |
| Website | ru.ac.za |
Rhodes University (RU or simply Rhodes) is a public research university located in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, established in 1904. It is the province’s oldest university, and is one of the four universities in the province. It is the fifth or sixth oldest South African university in continuous operation, being preceded by the University of the Free State (1904),[3] University of Witwatersrand (1896), Stellenbosch University (1866) and the University of Cape Town (1829). Rhodes was founded in 1904 as Rhodes University College, named after Cecil Rhodes, through a grant from the Rhodes Trust. It became a constituent college of the University of South Africa in 1918 before becoming an independent university in 1951.
The university has an enrolment of over 7,000 students, approximately 3,000 of whom live on campus in several residences located on campus while the remaining students (known as oppidans) take residence in diggs (off-campus residences) or in their own homes in town.
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Although a proposal to found a university in Grahamstown had been made as early as 1902, financial problems caused by the Frontier Wars in the Eastern Cape prevented the proposal from being implemented. In 1904 Leander Jamson issued £50 000 preferred stock to the university from the Rhodes Trust. With this funding Rhodes University College was founded by an act of parliament on May 31, 1904.
University education in the Eastern Cape began in the college departments of four schools: St. Andrew's College; Gill College, Somerset East; Graaff-Reinet College; and the Grey Institute in Port Elizabeth. The four St Andrew’s College professors, Arthur Matthews, George Cory, Stanley Kidd and G.F Dingemans became founding professors of Rhodes University College.
At the beginning of 1905, Rhodes moved from cramped quarters at St Andrew’s to the Drostdy building, which it bought from the British Government. Rhodes became a constituent college of the new University of South Africa in 1918 and it continued to expand in size. When the future of the University of South Africa came under review in 1947, Rhodes opted to become an independent university.
Rhodes University was inaugurated on 10 March 1951. Sir Basil Schonland, son of Selmar Schonland, became the first Chancellor of his alma mater, and Dr Thomas Alty the first Vice-Chancellor. In terms of the Rhodes University Private Act, the University College of Fort Hare was affiliated to Rhodes University. This mutually beneficial arrangement continued until the apartheid government decided to disaffiliate Fort Hare from Rhodes. The Rhodes Senate and Council objected strongly to this, and to the Separate University Education Bill, which they condemned as interference with academic freedom. However, the two bills were passed, and Fort Hare’s affiliation to Rhodes came to an end in 1959.
James Hyslop succeeded Alty in 1963. In 1971 Rhodes negotiated to purchase the closed Community of the Resurrection Training College buildings and grounds and a number of adjacent buildings, facilitating further expansion.
During 2008 work began on construction of a new library building at a cost of R85 million, one of the largest infrastructure projects undertaken by the university, and was completed in 2010.
Rhodes has six faculties, listed below:
The six faculties are further subdivided into 30 academic departments, of which 11 form part of the humanities faculty. The humanities faculty, being the largest in the university, consists of 40% of the student intake of undergraduate and postgraduate studies, enrolling 2669 students as of 2009.[4]
Rhodes is a small, highly residential university. For most undergraduates, first and second years of study are done while living in campus residences.
Rhodes' academic program operates on a semester calendar, beginning in early-February to early-June, and the second semester beginning in late-July and ending late-November.
Undergraduate tuition for the first year of study in 2011 towards a bachelor of arts and bachelor of science degree was R26590 and R27720, respectively, and the cost of board was between R35700 and R37600.[5]
Rhodes received 3603 applications for admission, admitting 1397 (38.7%) of applications.[5]
The table below shows the racial composition of the university for the year 2008.
| Undergraduate | Postgraduate | Eastern Cape Province | SA Census | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black | 56% | 42% | 87% | 79.4% |
| Coloured | 4% | 3% | 7.5% | 8.8% |
| White | 44% | 50% | 4.7% | 9.2% |
| Indian | 5% | 5% | 0.3% | 2.6% |
| Other | 0% | 0% | 1%> | 1%> |
There are three student newspapers, Activate, The Oppidan Press and Cue which has been published daily during the National Arts Festival held in Grahamston every year for several decades. Activate has been around for decades, while The Oppidan Press was first published in 2007 with its target readership being mainly Oppidans. The journal Philosophical Papers is edited in the department of philosophy.
In 2011 Webometrics ranked the university the 5th largest in South Africa and 700th in the world.[7]
In academia, Old Rhodian Max Theiler was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his research in virology in 1951. Between 1903 and 1980 Rhodians were awarded at least 155 Rhodes Scholarships, representing 20% of the 728 scholarships awarded in Southern Africa during that period.
One of the most well known departments on the Rhodes campus is the university's school of Journalism and Media Studies, through which many of South Africa's most notable media celebrities have passed. There are also an especially high number of radio celebrities who graduated at Rhodes - many of them having spent time with the university's campus radio station Rhodes Music Radio.
Some of the important media celebrities and industry figures from Rhodes include:
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