The University of the Free State is a public university in Bloemfontein which was founded in 1904.
It was founded as English-only and began to offer its first classes in Afrikaans in 1911. From 1948 was Afrikaans-only and in 1993 adopted a Parallel Language policy. It declared English its main language in 2016 and in 2021 formed the academy of multingualism, promoting in particular Sesotho, Afrikaans and isiZulu.
Students can study at the faculties of health science, law, education, theology and religion, humanities, economics and management science.
The undergraduate microscope laboratory is the largest in Africa and the robotic telescope at the observatory is one of only seven of its type.
