 |
The Technikon Witwatersrand was a technikon located in Johannesburg, South Africa. On 1 January 2005, it merged with Rand Afrikaans University and the Soweto and East Rand campuses of Vista University to form the University of Johannesburg. The former Vista University East Rand Campus has subsequently been permanently closed.
Technikon Witwatersrand traces its roots back to the beginning of the 20th century to the Transvaal Technical Institute, which was established in 1903 to serve the needs of the gold-mining industry. For the greater part of its existence, it was housed in a temporary wood and corrugated iron structure, affectionately known as the Tin Temple, on the corner of Rissik and Plein streets in central Johannesburg. The Institute grew and developed, and in time gave rise to the Universities of the Witwatersrand and Pretoria. In 1923, an Act of Parliament made provision for technical training, which led to the establishment of the Witwatersrand Technical Institute in 1925. This was the founding date of the Technikon Witwatersrand. The Witwatersrand Technical Institute underwent a series of changes: it became the Witwatersrand Technical College in 1930, the Witwatersrand College for Advanced Technical Education in 1968 and finally, the Technikon Witwatersrand in 1979. Today, it is a large and complex institution. Some 12,000 students and 1,200 staff members from all spheres of the city's multifaceted community make up a vibrant educational centre extending across the east–west axis of Johannesburg.
On 31 May 2002, the Minister of Education, Kader Asmal, released the government's proposals for the restructuring of higher education in South Africa. Mergers between various educational institutions in South Africa were then proposed as necessary to the restructuring process.
Rand Afrikaans University and Technikon Witwatersrand were two of the institutions that were selected to merge with each other and are to become one comprehensive institution. Officially, the Technikon Witwatersrand and Rand Afrikaans University merged on 1 January 2005 to form a new institution by the name of the University of Johannesburg. The new institution offers both academic and technology degrees. The final meetings and preparations took place in 2004 so as to ensure that all structures were in place and that everything ran smoothly when the University of Johannesburg opened in 2005.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
The Witwatersrand is a 56-kilometre-long (35 mi), north-facing scarp in South Africa. It consists of a hard, erosion-resistant quartzite metamorphic rock, over which several north-flowing rivers form waterfalls, which account for the name Witwatersrand, meaning "white water ridge" in Afrikaans. This east-west-running scarp can be traced with only one short gap, from Bedfordview in the east, through Johannesburg and Roodepoort, to Krugersdorp in the west.
The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The university has its roots in the mining industry, as do Johannesburg and the Witwatersrand in general. Founded in 1896 as the South African School of Mines in Kimberley, it is the third oldest South African university in continuous operation.
Nelson Mandela University, formerly Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, is a public university in South Africa. Established in 2005, it comprises the former University of Port Elizabeth, the Port Elizabeth Technikon and Vista University's Port Elizabeth campus. This university has its main administration in the coastal city of Gqeberha.
The East Rand is a major urban area located in the Gauteng province of South Africa. It is the urban eastern part of Witwatersrand that is functionally merged with the Johannesburg conurbation. The region extends from Alberton in the west to Springs in the east, and south down to Nigel. It includes the towns of Bedfordview, Benoni, Boksburg, Brakpan, Edenvale, Germiston, Kempton Park, Linksfield and Modderfontein. The East Rand is known as the transport hub of Johannesburg and includes Africa's largest and second busiest airport, OR Tambo International Airport.
The term Greater Johannesburg may refer to:
The University of Johannesburg, colloquially known as UJ, is a public university located in Johannesburg, South Africa. The University of Johannesburg was established on the 1st of January 2005 as the result of a merger between the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), the Technikon Witwatersrand (TWR) and the Soweto and East Rand campuses of Vista University. Prior to the merger, the Daveyton and Soweto campuses of the former Vista University had been incorporated into RAU. As a result of the merger of Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), it is common for alumni to refer to the university as RAU.
Roodepoort is a town in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Formerly an independent municipality, Roodepoort became part of the Johannesburg municipality in the late 1990s, along with Randburg and Sandton. Johannesburg's most famous botanical garden, Witwatersrand National Botanical Gardens, is located in Roodepoort.
A technikon was a post-secondary institute of technology (polytech) in South Africa. It focused on career-oriented vocational training. There were 15 technikons in the 1990s, but they were merged or restructured as universities in the early 2000s.
Driefontein is the Driefontein Mine in the West Witwatersrand Basin mining field. The West Wits field was discovered in 1931 and commenced operations with Venterspost Gold Mine in 1939. In 1952, the West Driefontein mine is opened. In 1968, Kloof mine commences operations. In 1972, East Driefontein opens. In 1981, consolidation starts. In 1999, Gold Fields took control of the combined East and West Driefontein mines and merged them starting 2000 with Venterspost, Libanon, Leuudoorn and Kloof mines. In 2010, the current Kloof-Driefontein Complex, comprising KDC East and KDC West, is formed.
Doornfontein is an inner-city suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa, located to the east of the city centre, Region 8. In the 1930s, it attracted many Jewish immigrants, becoming the main hub for the city's Jewish community. Black African residents, then a minority in the suburb, lived in slum-yards. Under the Slums Clearance Act 1934, the slum-yards were cleared and many residents were relocated to Orlando, Soweto. Since the late 1970s, Doornfontein and other inner-city suburbs of Johannesburg have underdone high levels of white flight to the city's northern suburbs.
The University of Port Elizabeth (UPE) was a public university located in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. UPE was founded on 31 January 1964, by an act of parliament, and held its first academic year in 1965. It offered bachelor's degrees, as well as masters and doctoral degrees. The university closed down in 2004, with its campuses forming part of the Nelson Mandela University, which opened in 2005.
The Rand Afrikaans University was a prominent South African institution of higher education and research that served the greater Johannesburg area and surroundings from 1967 to 2004. It has since merged with the Technikon Witwatersrand and two campuses of Vista University to form the University of Johannesburg.
Vista University, South Africa was established in 1981 by the apartheid government to ensure that urban black South Africans seeking tertiary education would be accommodated within the townships rather than on campuses reserved for other population groups.
Cape Peninsula University of Technology is a university in Cape Town, South Africa. It is the only university of technology in the Western Cape province, and is also the largest university in the province, with over 32,000 students. It was formed by merging the Cape Technikon and Peninsula Technikon as well as a few other independent colleges.
Transvaal University College was a multi-campus public research university in South Africa which gave rise to the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Pretoria.
The campuses of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg contain a number of notable buildings. There are five campuses: East Campus and West Campus are located in Braamfontein on opposite sides of the M1 highway, while the Education Campus and the Medical and Management schools are located in Parktown.
The South African South East Academic Libraries System, commonly known as SEALS, was conceptualized in 1998 as a regional library cooperative, and fully constituted in 1999 as a regional consortium, under the auspices of the Eastern Cape Higher Education Association (ECHEA) in South Africa.
Ihron Rensburg is a South African leader who served as Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Johannesburg. He completed his undergraduate degree from Rhodes University and a Ph.D. in International Development Education from Stanford University. He received an honorary doctorate from the University of the West Indies.
