Rhodes University History

A brief history of Rhodes University

You might have already done your research on the place you you’ll call home for at least the next three years, but in case you didn’t know, here are some things about Rhodes university history you might find interesting.

Rhodes was not always going to exist

By the early 1900s there weren’t many schools in the area that prepped for tertiary education at University of the Cape of Good Hope, mostly because limitations in staff, laboratory equipment and libraries made tuition inadequate. It seemed obvious that only a central university college could provide a satisfactory standard of university education. But Grahamstown was not a likely choice. It wasn’t in the mainstream of commercial life, and the lack of funds caused by the South African war almost extinguished the project. But by the end of 1902 a bunch of people got together to make it happen, thus was born the resilience Rhodians still have.

Tutorial System

At the beginning of 1905, Rhodes moved from the cramped quarters at St Andrew’s (the high school) to the Drostdy building, which it bought from the British Government. One of the distinctive features which evolved early in Rhodes’ history was the tutorial system, adapted from the Oxbridge model. Each student was assigned to a staff member who took a personal interest in his or her work and welfare. As numbers increased, students were assigned tutors and tutorial groups within academic departments, providing a forum for the lively debate characteristic of a Rhodes education. To this day, we still have tutorials- which are compulsory and very useful to attend.

Expanding the University

Rhodes is famous for a variety of different reasons: its academic prestige, its architecture, its alumni (old Rhodians), its culture and much more.
Residences were built within 10 years of the universities opening. De Beers, Cullen Bowels and Adamson House are all named after the first intake of staff members from the university’s early years.
At the end of 1938 the Carnegie Corporation made a Carnegie Library Fellowship available to train the first Rhodes Librarian with a substantial grant to buy books for the Rhodes Library.

Recent affairs

Rhodes University is a public research university located in Makhanda in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province. Established in 1904, Rhodes University is the province’s oldest university, and it is the fifth or sixth oldest South African university in continuous operation, being preceded by the University of the Free State (1904), 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 John 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.

Rhodes was a British businessman who heavily aided British imperial interests in South Africa, which led to controversy starting in 2015. Protests held that year by Rhodes Must Fall led to the University of Cape Town removing a statue of Rhodes, and similar protests against Rhodes’ legacy occurred at Rhodes University. Some students and outlets started referring to it as The University Currently Known As Rhodes (UCKAR). In 2015 the University council undertook to determine whether or not the institution should change its name, as well as consider several other ways it could deal with the issues.

In 2017, the Rhodes University Council voted 15–9 in favour of keeping the existing name. While the university agreed with critics that “[it] cannot be disputed that Cecil John Rhodes was an arch-imperialist and white supremacist who treated people of this region as sub-human”, it also said it had long since distanced itself from the person and had distinguished itself with the name Rhodes University as one of the world’s best. The main argument against the change was financial, as such a change would cost a significant amount of money and the university was already having trouble with its budget. Furthermore, changing the university’s name could have an adverse effect on its international recognition internationally.