A technikon was a post-secondary

institute of technology An institute of technology (also referred to as technological university, technical university, university of technology, polytechnic university) is an institution of tertiary education that specializes in engineering, technology, applied science ...

(polytech) in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. It focused on career-oriented vocational training. There were 15 technikons in the 1990s, but they were merged or restructured as universities (especially universities of technology) in the early 2000s.

Etymology

The word comes from the Greek , meaning 'technical'. (cf. Some technical schools were called technikums elsewhere in the world.)

List of technikons

In some sources, certain school names were reversed, e.g., Technikon Pretoria or Pretoria Technikon. Likewise, Witwatersrand Technikon or Technikon Witwatersrand; Natal Technikon or Technikon Natal; Free State Technikon or Technikon Free State.

History

Some technical colleges were founded in the early to mid-20th century in the country. In 1967, four technical colleges (Cape, Pretoria, Witwatersrand and Natal) became "colleges of advanced technical education". Two more such colleges (Vaal and

Witwatersrand The Witwatersrand (, ; ; locally the Rand or, less commonly, the Reef) is a , north-facing scarp in South Africa. It consists of a hard, erosion-resistant quartzite metamorphic rock, over which several north-flowing rivers form waterfalls, w ...

) were added by 1969. These six colleges became the first technikons in 1979. In the 1980s and 1990s, 9 more technikons were constituted, bringing up the total to 15. Compared to universities, technikons were not seen as prestigious. The Committee of Technikon Principals felt that "the name ''technikon'' had become a stumbling block", as their graduates were not recognized by professional associations, especially internationally. Tshwane University of Technology

Mergers and reorganisations were announced in 2002, drastically reducing the number of technikons. By 2006, after a process to transform the nation's "higher education landscape", there were no technikons left.

Student compositions

During

Apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

, the schools were divided into historically white technikons (HWTs) and historically black technikons (HBTs). The seven white technikons include the 'big four' (Cape, Pretoria, Witwatersrand and Natal), which had the most students (6000–11000 in 1991). The other white technikons were Free State, Port Elizabeth, and Vaal Triangle. SA was for

distance learning Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance; today, it usually involves online ...

, with a slight majority of whites. Northern Gauteng and Mangosuthu were black technikons. Peninsula was classified as a , but it was mostly attended by

Coloured Coloureds () are multiracial people in South Africa, Namibia and, to a smaller extent, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Their ancestry descends from the interracial mixing that occurred between Europeans, Africans and Asians. Interracial mixing in South ...

s. ML Sultan was also nominally a HBT, but was mostly attended by Indians. Three technikons were created in

bantustan A Bantustan (also known as a Bantu peoples, Bantu homeland, a Black people, black homeland, a Khoisan, black state or simply known as a homeland; ) was a territory that the National Party (South Africa), National Party administration of the ...

s; these had the lowest enrollments: Border (

Ciskei Ciskei ( , meaning ''on this side of Great Kei River,

he river The He River is a tributary of the Xi River in Guangxi and Guangdong provinces in China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it ...

Kei''), officially the Republic of Ciskei (), was a Bantustan for the Xhosa people, located in the southeast of South Africa. It covered an area of , almost entirely surrounded b ...

), Eastern Cape (

Transkei Transkei ( , meaning ''the area beyond Great Kei River,

Kei''), officially the Republic of Transkei (), was an list of historical unrecognized states and dependencies, unrecognised state in the southeastern region of South Africa f ...

), and North-West (initially named ''Setlogelo''; in

Bophuthatswana Bophuthatswana (, ), officially the Republic of Bophuthatswana (; ), and colloquially referred to as the Bop and by outsiders as Jigsawland (In reference to its enclave-ridden borders) was a Bantustan (also known as "Homeland", an area set asid ...

Degrees

In 1993, the ''Technikon Act'' (No. 125) enabled technikons to provide degree studies and confer degrees. Several technikon programmes were possible: * national higher certificate (2 years) * (3 years): 75% of technikon enrollments were in this diploma. ** 2 years of theoretical training, plus ** 1 year of experiential training with an industrial employer * national higher diploma (4 years) * bachelor's degree in technology (B-Tech: 4 years) * in some schools: master's degree (M-Tech: 1 year minimum) * in some schools: doctoral degree (D-Tech: 2 years minimum). White technikons and ML Sultan Technikon offered degrees at all three levels (bachelor's, master's and doctorates), but others did not.

References

The years for some older school names are from: * * {{cite web , title=South Africa - Technical and Vocational Qualifications , url= https://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/66898.htm , website=Operation Manual , location=New Zealand , date=2015, archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190124192919/https://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/66898.htm , archive-date= 2019-01-24 School types Vocational education in South Africa Higher education in South Africa