In 1956 the Nationalist Government announced that it intended to prohibit the ‘open universities’ from admitting non-white students and to establish separate universities for these students in their ‘own areas’. The definition of the term ‘open universities’ as it applied to the Universities of Cape Town and the Witwatersrand was that ‘they admit non-white students as well as white students and aim, in all academic matters, at treating non-white students on a footing of equality with white students, and without segregation’.

In fact, the situation was not quite that clear. Wits University was not entirely ‘open’, even in respect of its academic admissions policy. The role of the University as a centre for liberal thought and criticism in South Africa during its early years and its policy regarding the admission of black students and the appointment of black staff during that period, have been documented by Professor Bruce Murray in the first volume of the official Wits history. He has pointed out that at its inception Wits’s admissions policies reflected the prejudices of the society to which it belonged. While it never officially adopted a policy of excluding students on grounds of race or colour, it was very hesitant to accept black students in any substantial numbers.

When a campaign was launched in 1916 to establish a university in Johannesburg it had been emphasised that the new university would be for ‘Europeans’. However, in his installation address as Principal in August 1919, J H Hofmeyr indicated that the new university’s policy should be to be open to all who possessed the necessary qualifications: ‘It should know no distinctions of class or wealth, race or creed.’

Regrettably, the new University’s Senate and Council were not prepared to be led along the liberal path suggested by their young Principal and Murray has indicated that in the 1920s and early 1930s these bodies seriously contemplated officially adopting a restrictive admissions policy when blacks – first Coloureds and then Indians and Africans – began to apply for admission. In 1925 Council decided to take legal advice when the University received a letter from a Mr Du Randt, who was not white, seeking admission for his son.