Today in History: University of Pretoria was founded
Since 1994 and the end of apartheid, considerable transformation has taken place.
On this day in 1908, a new department of the Transvaal University College (TUC), situated in Johannesburg, started classes in Kya Rosa, a house in Skinner Street, Pretoria.
This department, consisting of arts and science courses with four professors, three lecturers and thirty-two students, developed into the University of Pretoria. The nickname for the university – Tuks or Tukkies – is derived from the TUC acronym.
The University of Pretoria, into which the Transvaal University College was incorporated, was upgraded as a fully fledged autonomous university on 10 October 1930, having been a university college since 17 May 1910. Afrikaans became the official language of instruction on 13 September 1932.
Soon after the abolition of apartheid in 1994, the university was transformed from a mainly white, Afrikaans-medium institution, to a national university in the true sense of the word, accessible to all South Africans. At present, a healthy portion of the student body is non-Afrikaans speaking or speaks both Afrikaans and English.
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