Sol Plaatje University was formally launched in Kimberley – 2013 

For much of its history, Kimberley possessed many of the institutions expected of an important regional capital—museums, libraries, schools, hospitals, courts and government offices—but it did not have its own public university. That changed in 2013 with the establishment of Sol Plaatje University (SPU), the first public university in the Northern Cape and one of the first entirely new universities created in democratic South Africa. Sol Plaatje University was formally launched in Kimberley on 19 September 2013 by the Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Blade Nzimande. Classes began on 17 February 2014 with just 141 students studying Education, Retail Management and Information Technology.