CPUT was established on 1 January 2005, through the merging of the Cape Technikon and Peninsula Technikon, as well as numerous small colleges, following years of change in the
higher education landscape of South Africa. In 1993, the
Technikons Act was promulgated, which allowed
technikons to offer
bachelor's degrees (
B.Tech),
master's and
doctoral degrees in Technology. In March 2001, then-
Minister of Higher Education Kader Asmal announced the
National Plan on Higher Education. In May 2002, he announced the possible merger of the two institutions, with the National Working Committee also recommending the
University of the Western Cape be included in the merger. Towards the end of 2002, the final merger was announced, and in October 2003, the institution's new name was approved. An Executive Interim Management body was appointed towards the end of 2004. Prof. L Vuyisa Mazwi-Tanga was appointed as the first
vice-chancellor of CPUT in February 2006. Around the same time, the nine faculties of the original institutions were merged and re-organized into six new ones. These were Applied Science; Business; Education and Social Sciences; Engineering; Health and Wellness Sciences; and Informatics & Design. A separate postgraduate unit was established to offer multidisciplinary postgraduate programmes and funded research known as the e-Innovation Academy, and as from March 2008 the Faculty of Informatics & Design Research Unit. The Department of Information Technology in collaboration with the Bridgetown Community,
Athlone, COFISA and IDM launched the Athlone
Living lab, a community ICT innovation project, in September 2008. This would be the first Living Lab in the Western Cape. In April 2008, then-South African
Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel was appointed Chancellor of CPUT. ==Campuses==