The University of Limpopo is a university in the Limpopo Province, South Africa. It was formed on 1 January 2005, by the merger of the University of the North and the Medical University of South Africa (MEDUNSA). These previous institutions form the Turfloop and MEDUNSA campuses of the university, respectively.
The University of the North was established in 1959 under the apartheid regime's policy of separate ethnically-based institutions of higher learning policy. The university was sited at Turfloop farm about 40 km east of Pietersburg. The town that grew around the university was named Sovenga, (SOtho, VENda, TsoNGA) for the three ethnic groups that were supposed to study there. In reality, most inhabitants refer to the town as Mankweng, after one of the chiefs of the area. Under later apartheid, UNIN served as a "model" university where dignitaries were brought to show the "viability" of the separate facilities. As such, it received heavy government subsidies, but the real problem was that the students that the university supposedly served were so under-resourced in their standard education that the quality of instruction was placed under incredible demands.
The university was a center of resistance to apartheid in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s with the SADF occupying the grounds often during those years. After the end of apartheid, the university struggled through various re-organization and rationalization schemes, yet always managed to survive. Enrollment fluxuated wildly in the years after liberation and while some faculty did not transition very easily, others were able to seize upon the new opportunities.
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