This is a list of universities in South Africa . In this list, colleges and universities are defined as accredited, degree-granting, tertiary institutions. As of September 2022, only South African public degree-granting institutions may call themselves a "university", whereas other accredited private for-profit or not-for-profit degree-granting institutions tend to call themselves colleges, institutes or business schools. [1]
Some of these private institutions are local campuses of foreign universities. Degree-granting institutions (both public and private) must be registered with, and have their specific degree programs accredited by, the Council on Higher Education.
In 2004 South Africa started reforming its public higher education system, [2] merging and incorporating small public universities into larger institutions, and renaming all higher education institutions "university" (previously there had been several types of higher education institution). The country's universities and "technikons", which were incorporated with others and thus no longer exist, are listed at the end of the article.
Two new universities launched in 2013, [3] Sol Plaatje University and the University of Mpumalanga. They are tentatively classified in the universities of technology category, pending clarification of their programs.
Public universities in South Africa are divided into three types: traditional universities, which offer theoretically oriented university degrees; universities of technology ("technikons"), which offer vocational oriented diplomas and degrees; and comprehensive universities, which offer a combination of both types of qualification. [4] [5]
Institution | Nickname | Founded | University status | Undergrad | Postgrad | Total | Location(s) | Medium |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
University of Cape Town | Ikeys / UCT | 1 October 1829 [6] | 2 April 1918 [6] | 18,421 | 10,653 | 29,074 | Cape Town | Eng |
University of Fort Hare | UFH / Blues | 1916 [7] | 9,074 | 2,000 | 11,074 | Alice, East London, Bhisho | Eng | |
University of the Free State | Kovsies / UFS | 28 January 1904 [8] | 1950 [9] | 21,193 | 5,082 | 26,275 [10] | Bloemfontein, QwaQwa | Eng |
University of KwaZulu-Natal | UKZN / Natal / Impi | 1 January 20041 [11] | 1 January 2004 [11] | 33,456 | 13,064 | 46,520 (2016) [12] | Durban, Pietermaritzburg, Pinetown, Westville | Eng |
University of Limpopo | Turfloop | 1 January 20051 [13] | 1 January 2005 [13] | 17,273 | 3,327 | 20,600 | Polokwane, Turfloop | Eng |
North-West University | NWU / Pukke / Eagles | 1 January 20041 [14] | 1 January 2004 [14] | 43,596 | 3,235 | 44,008 | Mafikeng, Mankwe, Potchefstroom, Vanderbijlpark | Afr (Potchefstroom campus), Eng (Mafikeng campus), Setswana (Vaaldriehoek campus) |
University of Pretoria | Tuks / Tukkies / UP [15] | 4 March 1908 [16] | 10 October 1930 [17] | 35,9422 | 12,5412 | 48,483 [18] | Pretoria, Johannesburg3 [19] | Eng |
Rhodes University | Rhodes / RU | 31 May 1904 [20] | 10 March 1951 | 5,456 | 1,127 | 6,700 | Grahamstown | Eng |
Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University4 | SMU (formerly MEDUNSA) | 16 May 2014 [21] | 16 May 2014 | 6,410 (2018) [22] | Ga-Rankuwa, Pretoria | Eng | ||
Stellenbosch University | Maties, Stellies | 1866 [23] | 2 April 1918 [23] | 17,970 [24] | 9,853 | 27,823 | Stellenbosch, Saldanha Bay, Bellville, Tygerberg | Eng, Afr |
University of the Western Cape | UWC / Bush / U Dubs | 1959 [25] | 1970 [25] | 11,836 | 3,390 | 15,226 | Bellville | Eng |
University of the Witwatersrand | Wits, Witsies | 1896 [26] | 1922 [26] | 24 621 [27] | 13 234 [27] | 38 353 [27] | Johannesburg | Eng |
Note1: By merger of existing institutions
Note2: Exact and current numbers not available, these numbers are from the University of Pretoria's wiki.
Note3: The university's business school the Gordon Institute of Business Science has a campus in Illovo and an inner-city campus on Pritchard Street, in downtown Johannesburg.
Note4: Split out from the University of Limpopo into which Medical University of South Africa had previously merged.
Institution | Nickname | Founded | Undergrad | Postgrad | Total | Location(s) | Medium |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
University of Johannesburg | UJ | 1 January 20051 (1967 as RAU, Technikon Witwatersrand and the East Rand campus of Vista University) | >50,000 [28] | Johannesburg, Soweto | Eng | ||
Nelson Mandela University | Madibaz / NMU | 1 January 20052 (1964 as UPE) | 19,768 | 2,884 | 22,652 | Port Elizabeth, George | Eng |
University of South Africa | Unisa | 1873 (UCGH) | 300,000 | Distance education, headquartered in Pretoria, campuses and regional offices nationwide | Eng | ||
University of Venda | Univen | 1982 | 10,968 | Thohoyandou | Eng | ||
Walter Sisulu University | WSU/ALL BLACKS | 1977 (Unitra) | 32,081 (2018) [29] | East London, Butterworth, Mthatha, Queenstown | Eng | ||
University of Zululand | UniZulu | 1960 | 6,456 | 369 | 6,825 | Empangeni | Eng |
Note1: By merger of existing institutions
Note2: By merger of existing institutions
Institution | Nickname | Founded | University status | Undergrad | Postgrad | Total (2011) | Location(s) | Medium |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cape Peninsula University of Technology | CPUT/Cats | 20051 | 2005 | 32,000 | Bellville, Cape Town | Eng | ||
Central University of Technology | CUT/Ixias | 1981 | 21,993 | Bloemfontein, Welkom | Eng | |||
Durban University of Technology | DUT | 20021 | 2002 | 23,000 | Durban, Pietermaritzburg | Eng | ||
Mangosuthu University of Technology | MUT | 1979 | 2007 | Umlazi | Eng | |||
University of Mpumalanga | UMP | 2013 | 2013 | Mbombela | Eng | |||
Sol Plaatje University | SPU | 2013 | 2013 | Kimberley, Northern Cape | Eng | |||
Tshwane University of Technology | TUT/Vikings | 20031 | 2003 | 60,000 | Pretoria, Mbombela, Polokwane, Ga-Rankuwa, Soshanguve, Witbank | Eng | ||
Vaal University of Technology | VUT | 1966 | 2003 | 17,000 | Vanderbijlpark, Secunda, Kempton Park, Klerksdorp, Upington | Eng |
Note1: By merger of existing institutions
Institution | Nickname | Founded | Enrollment | Type | Location(s) | Medium | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Auckland Park Theological Seminary | ATS | 1997 (1956) | Theological seminary | Johannesburg | Eng | ||
Open Christian University | OCU | 2021 | Rolling Enrollment | Theological | Online, HQ in Bethal | Eng | |
Baptist Theological College of Southern Africa | 1951 | Theological seminary | Johannesburg | Eng | |||
George Whitefield College | 1989 | Theological seminary | Cape Town | Eng | |||
South African Theological Seminary | SATS | 1996 | Theological seminary | Online (HQ Bryanston) | Eng | ||
St Augustine College of South Africa | 1999 | Private Tertiary Academic Institution | Johannesburg | Eng |
Institution | Nickname | Founded | Enrollment | Type | Location(s) | Medium |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Two Oceans Graduate Institute | TOGI | 2017 | Registered private higher education institution | Distance/Online (HQ Cape Town) | Eng |
League tables of South African universities are largely based on international university rankings, because there have not as yet been published any specifically South African rankings.
Stellenbosch University (SU) (Afrikaans: Universiteit Stellenbosch, Xhosa: iYunivesithi yaseStellenbosch) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant university in Sub-Saharan Africa, which received full university status in 1918. Stellenbosch University designed and manufactured Africa's first microsatellite, SUNSAT, launched in 1999.
The Technikon Witwatersrand was a technikon located in Johannesburg, South Africa. On 1 January 2005, it merged with Rand Afrikaans University and the Soweto and East Rand campuses of Vista University to form the University of Johannesburg. The former Vista University East Rand Campus has subsequently been permanently closed.
The University of Johannesburg, colloquially known as UJ, is a public university located in Johannesburg, South Africa. The University of Johannesburg was established on the 1st of January 2005 as the result of a merger between the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), the Technikon Witwatersrand (TWR) and the Soweto and East Rand campuses of Vista University. Prior to the merger, the Daveyton and Soweto campuses of the former Vista University had been incorporated into RAU. As a result of the merger of Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), it is common for alumni to refer to the university as RAU.
Brenda Mary Gourley was the Vice-Chancellor of the Open University from 2002 until 2009.
Tshwane University of Technology is a higher education institution in South Africa that came into being through a merger of three technikons — Technikon Northern Gauteng, Technikon North-West and Technikon Pretoria.
A technikon was a post-secondary institute of technology (polytech) in South Africa. It focused on career-oriented vocational training. There were 15 technikons in the 1990s, but they were merged or restructured as universities in the early 2000s.
The Rand Afrikaans University was a prominent South African institution of higher education and research that served the greater Johannesburg area and surroundings from 1967 to 2004. It has since merged with the Technikon Witwatersrand and two campuses of Vista University to form the University of Johannesburg.
Vista University, South Africa was established in 1981 by the apartheid government to ensure that urban black South Africans seeking tertiary education would be accommodated within the townships rather than on campuses reserved for other population groups.
Cape Peninsula University of Technology is a university in Cape Town, South Africa. It is the only university of technology in the Western Cape province, and is also the largest university in the province, with over 32,000 students. It was formed by merging the Cape Technikon and Peninsula Technikon as well as a few other independent colleges.
Universities South Africa (USAf), formerly known as Higher Education South Africa (HESA), is an intermediary that represents all 26 public universities in South Africa to the general public. USAf offers different discussion fora for members to debate, link to best practices and collaborate. USAf adopts the rhetoric of transformation to describe the changes they envisage for the South African Higher Education sector.
The University of South Africa (UNISA) is the largest university system in South Africa by enrollment. It attracts a third of all higher education students in South Africa. Through various colleges and affiliates, UNISA has over 400,000 students, including international students from 130 countries worldwide, making it one of the world's mega universities and the only such university in Africa.
The University of Pretoria is a multi-campus public research university in Pretoria, the administrative and de facto capital of South Africa. The university was established in 1908 as the Pretoria campus of the Johannesburg-based Transvaal University College and is the fourth South African institution in continuous operation to be awarded university status. The university has grown from the original 32 students in a single late Victorian house to approximately 53,000 in 2019. The university was built on seven suburban campuses on 1,190 hectares.
Heinrich Stephen Samuel Willemse is a South African academic, literary critic, activist and author. He currently serves as professor in the Department of Afrikaans at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. He was the former editor-in-chief of the African literary journal Tydskrif vir Letterkunde.
Hierarchical lists that rank universities are regularly published by the popular press. Intended originally as a marketing or a benchmarking tool, university rankings have become apart of many countries research evaluation and policy initiatives. These different tables attempt to fulfill a demand for information and transparency. However, rankings influence evaluation choices and distort higher education policies. List producers allow well remunerated vice-chancellors to claim a top spot for their university in an educational league. These ranking, the publishers claim, are determined by quantitative indicators. Published research suggests otherwise, rankings are re-shaping public education and harming the academic project. According to an Independent Expert Group (IEG), convened by the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health, Global university rankings are
The North-West University (NWU) is a public research university located on three campuses in Potchefstroom, Mahikeng and Vanderbijlpark in South Africa. The university came into existence through the merger in 2004 of the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, a large, historical university dating back to 1869, which also had a branch in Vanderbijlpark, and the University of North-West. With its merged status, the North-West University became one of the largest universities in South Africa with the third largest student population in the country. NWU ranks among top universities locally, in Africa and globally.
The Extension of University Education Act, Act 45 of 1959, formed part of the apartheid system of racial segregation in South Africa. This act made it a criminal offense for a non-white student to register at a formerly open university without the written permission of the Minister of Internal Affairs. New universities were then established for various non-white groups.
Lucas Cornelis Malan was a South African academic and writer of poetry, prose, plays, text books, literary reviews and other articles, principally in Afrikaans.
Open access to scholarly communication in South Africa occurs online via journals, repositories, and a variety of other tools and platforms. Compared to other African nations, open access in South Africa has grown quickly in recent years.
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