Apartheid and university education, 1948 - 1970

• Main Author: Beale, Mary Alice
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Universities and colleges > South Africa.; Education and state > South Africa > History > 20th century.; Discrimination in education > South Africa.; Apartheid > South Africa.
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10539/20610

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Johannesburg, 1998 === This thesis examines Government university policy between 1948 and 1970. University education was already segregated and discriminatory in 1948 and until the mid 1950s, Nationalists disagreed about plans for university education. Their discussions about the development of apartheid university policies helped clarify general apartheid principles, Apartheid university education was based on the principle that university education was not universal but should serve a particular ethnic community. Divided university education was entrenched through the Extension of University Education and Fort Hare Transfer Acts of 1959, which were primarily produced by the Native Affairs Department. The ethnically segregated, state-controlled university colleges they created provided different, inferior educational opportunities to the state-aided, more autonomous, universities. The 'open' universities complied with the compulsory closure of enrolment to black students. The University of Natal was less co-operative, but also ultimately complied. Enrolment at ethnic university colleges was not compulsory, but there were few alternatives. Enrolments at black institutions rose, despite continued opposition to ethnically-defined institutions. In the 1960s Nationalists promoted Afrikaans enrolments and facilities for Afrikaans students. The establishment the University of Port Elizabeth and the Rand Afrikaans University was only considered once the economic boom of the 1960s made this feasible. The Government spent more money on university education generally, resulting in huge increases in enrolments and institutional capacity. Spending on Afrikaans students was most generous. The black university colleges were expensive, but Government spending on black university education, in proportion to the black population, remained low. African school funds were depleted to pay for the African university colleges. The divided university system produced far more white graduates, in a wider range of disciplines, than black graduates. South African universities were isolated internationally and the development of an indigenous intellectual culture and research capacity was hindered, especially at the Afrikaans medium and black institutions. Politically, Nationalist university policy was counterproductive. It failed to build white South Africanism, and the university colleges nurtured Black Consciousness. From tine late 1960s the police increasingly acted against students at the black and English-medium institutions. In 1970 the black university colleges were granted autonomy from Unisa, Keywords: South Africa, apartheid, National Party, policy, education, university, students, Saso, Nusas