Stellenbosch University

Stellenbosch University is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant university in Sub-Saharan Africa, together with the University of Cape Town - which received full university status on the same day in 1918. Stellenbosch University designed and manufactured Africa's first microsatellite, SUNSAT, launched in 1999.Stellenbosch University was the first African university to sign the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities.The students of Stellenbosch University are nicknamed "Maties". The term probably arises from the Afrikaans word "tamatie". An alternative theory is that the term comes from the Afrikaans colloquialism maat, originally used diminutively by the students of the University of Cape Town's precursor, the South African College.