Timeline

Sol Plaatje University (SPU) was established on 23 August 2013, as one of the two universities established post-apartheid in South Africa.

Generous sponsorship from Standard Bank (Northern Cape) allowed SPU to introduce the Bicycle Project in which staff and students are able to rent a SPUbranded bicycle at a nominal rental of R360 per year. Given the generally flat terrain of greater Kimberley, the project has proven to be popular and has reduced the cost of local travel for students.

The SPU Library and Student Resources Building was one of the first two buildings, the construction of which was commenced under full SPU control. The building itself was designed as a landmark building, completing the south-end of the Central Campus Square, and has been designed flexibly to accommodate the changing nature of the concept of a library to accommodate both regular physical holdings of a library, as well as digital resources with both regular physical holdings of a library, as well as digital resources. In addition to its core library functions, this building will also provide student workspaces, classrooms on the second and third floors, seminar rooms, a multi-purpose auditorium (240-seater), a small conference centre with break-away rooms and space for archival and exhibition purposes. Work on this six-storeys building commenced in October 2015. Due to the complexity of the concrete exoskeleton and the core of the building, the project over-ran its time schedule. At the end of 2017, there were still small outstanding issues that required to be settled with the main contractor. Nevertheless, the Library won the prestigious national Fulton Award for 2017 in the category of building structures more than three storeys high. The Fulton Award was granted for the particularly innovative use of concrete in the building.