About SPU

Sol Plaatje University (SPU) opened in 2014, the first of two new universities to be established in post-apartheid South Africa. It is also the first university to be established in the Northern Cape Province.

Positioned as a niche university

Positioning itself as a niche university, SPU offers academic programmes of a high intellectual nature in fields that meet the needs of the South African thrust to develop a nation that is proud of its heritage and roots.

In developing the focus for its academic disciplines, SPU has looked to the unique needs, competence and characteristics of the Northern Cape region. This approach brought the current focus areas of teacher education, ICT and data science, heritage studies, paleo-sciences and creative writing in African languages to the fore.

Furthermore, in an era of concern about global warming and the more-serious threat to arid regions like the Northern Cape, SPU is developing future programmes in agricultural sciences with a focus on water-stressed conditions. The availability of physical resources together with the intellectual capacity to deliver such programmes will determine how quickly they can be implemented.

Solid relationships with stakeholders

SPU wants to be a serious contributor to the enduring human attempts at giving meaning to complexity, in the particular context of the region.  To do this, the University is forming solid and respectful partnerships with social and institutional structures in Kimberley and in the Northern Cape more generally.  It is in these partnerships that the idea of a university in the Northern Cape presents its most exciting prospect.

Developed as city university

SPU has been developed as a city university in the town of Kimberley. It occupies a combination of existing and purpose-built structures. The architecture of the new buildings has a unique personality and embraces a modern approach to light and space and is inclusive of artwork and design reflecting the heritage of the area.

An important characteristic of a great city is that it also has a good university. Here is the nexus that aligns the development strategies of the city and the University and that demands of SPU to develop and sustain high quality, exciting academic programmes that will be attractive to staff and students from the region and beyond to learn, work and live in Kimberley.

Pride in its namesake

SPU takes pride in the fact that it bears the name of Sol Plaatje, a visionary South African intellectual who embraced the values and ethos to which the University subscribes.

More about Sol Plaatje University

The vision of SPU is a university critically engaging in learning, research and development – while enhancing democratic practice and social justice in society.

The SPU mission is:

To become an institution of higher learning uniquely positioned to:

• graduate citizens competent and capable of realising the aspirations of society
• produce new knowledge impacting on key challenges of the region
• engage critically with communities of discourse and communities of people in order to search out pathways to equitable development.

The following three goals underpin the continuing development of SPU:

Goal 1: Academic design, development and delivery freedom 

 Goal 2: Cultivating the Sol Plaatje University experience freedom 

Goal 3: University governance, management and operation freedom 

SPU values

1. Academic freedom 

2. Independent intellectual endeavor

3. Depth and breadth of knowledge and critical thinking 

4. Academic citizenship

5. National and international comparability of academic quality

6. Community engagement and social responsiveness 

7. Intellectual integrity