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Stellenbosch University (Afrikaans: Universiteit van Stellenbosch) is an internationally recognised university which is situated in the town of Stellenbosch, South Africa. Other nearby universities are the University of Cape Town and University of the Western Cape.

Stellenbosch University designed and manufactured Africa’s first microsatellite, SUNSAT, launched in 1999.

Students are also nicknamed Maties. Some claim the term arises from their maroon rugby colors: a tamatie is the Afrikaans translation for tomato. It is more likely to come from the Afrikaans colloquialism matie (meaning “buddy” or “mate”) originally used diminutively by the students of the University of Cape Town’s precursor, the South African College.

The town of Stellenbosch is the second oldest in South Africa. As early as 1685, when the Dutch Reformed Church founded its second parish here, a beginning was made with regular school instruction. By the 1840s the Cape Colony was operating a system of centrally controlled Public Schools. Under this system, Stellenbosch was recognized as a divisional centre for education. In 1866 under the new Education Act the local Public School was reorganized as a First Class Public School, also to be known as the Stellenbosch Gymnasium. To help meet demand, the Stellenbosch Gymnasium in 1874, under the Higher Education Act, set up its own professorial division. This, called the Arts Department, may be regarded as the germ of the present Faculties of Arts and Science. Initially it consisted of the Rector (the Rev. Charles Anderson) and two professors, namely Prof. A. MacDonald for the Classics and English Literature and Prof. G. Gordon for Mathematics and Physical Science.

In 1879 the town of Stellenbosch celebrated its two-hundredth anniversary; in commemoration it was resolved to erect a large and suitable College building to house the Arts Department. The foundation stone of the new building was laid by the Administrator, Sir George Cumin Strachan, on 22 December 1880.

In 1881 the Arts Department received its charter as a College, and by a special Act of Parliament the status and the constitution of the Stellenbosch College were conferred upon it. It was provided at the same time that the Gymnasium should remain under the control of the College Council. The new building was completed and taken occupation of in phases. The formal opening took place on 6 November 1886. In 1887, the jubilee year of Queen Victoria’s reign, Her Majesty consented to the College’s name being changed to the Victoria College of Stellenbosch. In 1887 the Agriculture Department began with five students. In 1898, although the number of agriculture students had increased to 31, the Agriculture Department was taken away from the Victoria College and removed to Elsenburg. Twenty years later there was another reversal of policy, a full Faculty of Agriculture being established in the new University of Stellenbosch.

The period from 1897 to 1900 was also important on account of the construction of the Physics Laboratory and the Christian Marais Library, both made possible by the generosity of the brothers JH and CL Marais. In 1899 the “senior matriculation class”, 44 strong, was transferred from the College to the school, leaving the Victoria College with 116 fully matriculated “Arts” students. About five years later a strong movement began among friends and past students of the College for a further extension of its activity. This resulted in the separation of the chairs of Philosophy and English Literature, and also of Greek and Latin, the establishment of chairs in Zoology, Botany and History and, shortly afterwards, in Applied Mathematics as well.


When the Union of South Africa was founded, the problem of the reform of higher education came up for discussion once again. In place of only one university, the government granted charters to three, with their respective centres at Cape Town, Stellenbosch and Pretoria.

The creation of a university at Stellenbosch was made possible by Mr Jan Marais of Coetzenburg; to the cause of higher education at Stellenbosch, he had donated the sum of £100 000. The University Act, by which the Victoria College became an independent university, with all its privileges and duties, was passed by the Union Parliament in 1916. The number of registered students at the College in the last year before its promotion to university status was 503. In the same year the teaching staff numbered 40, 22 of whom were professors and 18 lecturers. The University Act, replacing the Victoria College by the University of Stellenbosch, came into effect on 2 April 1918. The decades since then have seen its student numbers grow from about 500 to some 22 000.

Stellenbosch University consists of about 150 departments divided amongst 10 faculties. It also has more than 40 research (and other) institutions.

The faculties that are situated on the main campus are:

• Arts and Social Sciences
• Science
• Education
• Agriculture
• Law
• Theology
• Commerce
• Engineering

The faculties and schools that are not situated on the main campus are:

• Military Science - situated in Saldanha
• Health Sciences - situated in Tygerberg
• Graduate School of Business - situated in Bellville

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