Stellenbosch University’s 2016 language policy has been upheld by the constitutional court.
The 2016 language policy, which was adopted under the Higher Education Act 101 of 1997 and the National Policy for Higher Education, gave preference to English as language of instruction at SU.
The policy sought to promote the university’s goals of equal access and multilingualism. This came after the movement Open Stellenbosch protested against the university’s 2014 language policy which they stated used language to exclude certain students.
The voluntary association, Gelyke Kanse, was formed with the goal of opposing this policy. They filed a case in the high court to set aside the 2016 policy, stating that it is unconstitutional towards mother-tongue Afrikaans speakers.
The University stated that unlike previous policies, the 2016 policy did not exclude black students from full access.