Identifying labels among university students in the new South Africa - A retrospective study

This article examines the relationship between political change and university students' sense of identity in South Africa during a 10-year period. Prior to 1994, identity in South Africa was largely based on ethnicity and language; is this still the case today? The new government has not only forced people to face changes in political issues but also changes in identification issues. Nowhere are these issues more striking than in an institution of higher learning, where students from diverse ethnic backgrounds are unified by a similar goal-an education. In an attempt to address the issue of identification, a survey was conducted at Rand Afrikaans University in Johannesburg, South Africa, to determine if the change in government is causing a change in how people perceive themselves.