A Very Brief History of Unisa

Unisa did not begin its life as Unisa. It began its life in 1873 as the University of the Cape
of Good hope. During its early days in the then Cape Collony it served as an examing
agency for Oxford and Cambridge. So, in a way, it has always been involved with
distance education but at that time it did not offer any tuition.

In 1916 the university adopted the name, “University of South Africa”. The change of
name was soon followed by a change of address. In 1918 Unisa moved its headquarters
from Cape Town to Pretoria.

It was shortly after the end of World War 2 in 1946 when Unisa began to offer distance
education in a very real sense and became an international pioneer in this field.

Throughout the apartheid era the university remained inter-racial. In 2004 Unisa joined
with Tecknickon S.A  and incorporated the distance education department of of the Vista
University.

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