Academic Heraldry

There are said to be around 36 000 schools and other educational institutions in South Africa. A large number of them are armigerous, and many other schools and colleges use pseudo-heraldic badges.

Most academic arms seem to consist only of shield and motto, though institutions of higher learning, and some schools, also have crests, and even supporters.

Designs may allude to home towns, or to the arms of founders or namesakes. Several symbols of learning, such as an open book, a lamp, and a flaming torch, are popular, to the point of becoming clichés. Since the 1970s, the Bureau of Heraldry has encouraged simplicity of design, and the use of other symbols such as a key, and a trefoil or a trefly line to represent the learner/ parent/ teacher partnership in education. The Bureau introduced standard patterns for the arms of technical colleges (in 1978), technikons (in 1985), and special schools (in 1988).

Colleges

Since 1978, technical college arms have been characterised by the use of demi-cogwheels (often with trefly teeth), as in the arms of the Vanderbijlpark Technical College.

Professional Associations
There are several armigerous teachers' associations, e.g. the National Professional Teachers' Organisation of SA, whose arms were originally Azure, two shepherd's crooks issuant addorsed erect ensigned with a triquetra inverted Or (BoH 1993), The triquetra was replaced in 1995 with a protea slipped and leaved Or seeded Argent. Naptosa now uses an arms-like emblem which includes the two shepherd's crooks, which seem to have become a symbol of teaching.

Schools

There must be well over a thousand schools which are armigerous, most, like St Andrew's College with arms dating from the 20th century. A dozen special schools for mentally handicapped children bear arms of a standard pattern introduced in 1988, characterised by being divided "per chevron the peak ensigned of a potent issuant", e.g. the Re Tlameleng Special School (BoH 1994).

Technikons
Until 2004, there were fifteen technikons, i.e. tertiary-level technical colleges. Most were armigerous, and the last few arms to be registered (from 1985 onwards) followed a common pattern in which the field was divided "per fess nowy of a trimount to base", e.g. as in the arms of the correspondence institution Technikon SA (BoH 1986 and 1994).

Universities

Until 2004, there were twenty-one universities, all of which were armigerous. There was no common pattern to their arms, though open books appeared in more than half of them, e.g. those of the University of South Africa (1903). Today, there are sixteen universities, and all the new institutions have opted for logos rather than arms.

References/Sources/Links

South African Heraldry Website © Arthur Radburn