This is a list of universities in South Africa. For the purposes of this list, colleges and universities are defined as accredited, degree-granting, tertiary institutions. As at 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. Some of these private institutions are local

campus A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a college campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls, student centers or dining halls, and park-like se ...

es 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, 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 "

technikon 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 (especially universi ...

s", which were incorporated with others and thus no longer exist, are listed at the end of the article. Two new universities launched in 2013,

Sol Plaatje University The Sol Plaatje University, which had provisionally been referred to as the University of the Northern Cape, opened in Kimberley, South Africa, in 2014, accommodating a modest initial intake of 135 students. The student complement is expected to ...

and the

University of Mpumalanga University of Mpumalanga is based in Mbombela, South Africa. It was established in 2014, initially accommodating a modest intake of one hundred and forty students. It incorporates the infrastructure of three existing institutions – the Lowveld ...

. They are tentatively classified in the

universities of technology An institute of technology (also referred to as: technological university, technical university, university of technology, technological educational institute, technical college, polytechnic university or just polytechnic) is an institution of te ...

category, pending clarification of their programs.

Public universities

Public universities in South Africa are divided into three types: traditional universities, which offer theoretically oriented university degrees;

s"), which offer

vocational A vocation () is an occupation to which a person is especially drawn or for which they are suited, trained or qualified. People can be given information about a new occupation through student orientation. Though now often used in non-religious c ...

oriented diplomas and degrees; and comprehensive universities, which offer a combination of both types of qualification.HESA Structures
/ref>

Traditional universities

File:UCT Upper Campus landscape view.jpg,

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

File:Fort hare, old building - rsa.jpg,

University of Fort Hare The University of Fort Hare is a public university in Alice, Eastern Cape, South Africa. It was a key institution of higher education for Africans from 1916 to 1959 when it offered a Western-style academic education to students from across sub ...

File:Main_building_FSU_2.jpg,

University of the Free State The University of the Free State is a multi-campus public university in Bloemfontein, the capital of the Free State and the judicial capital of South Africa. It was first established as an institution of higher learning in 1904 as a tertiary se ...

File:UKZNPclocktower.jpg,

University of KwaZulu-Natal The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) is a university with five campuses in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. It was formed on 1 January 2004 after the merger between the University of Natal and the University of Durban-Westville. ...

File:Building Potchefstroom University.jpg,

North-West University af , Noordwes-Universiteit , image = https://www.nwu.ac.za/sites/www.nwu.ac.za/files/NWU-Logo-SW.png , motto = ''Dit Begin Alles Hier (Afrikaans)'' ''Gotlhe Go Simolola Fano (Setswana)'' , mottoeng ...

File:Old Arts Faculty Building, University of Pretoria.jpg,

University of Pretoria The University of Pretoria ( af, Universiteit van Pretoria, nso, Yunibesithi ya 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 ...

File:Rhodes oldcampus.jpg,

Rhodes University Rhodes University is a public university, public research university located in Makhanda, Eastern Cape, Makhanda (Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province. Established in 1904, ...

File:Stellenbosch Ou Hoofgebou.jpg,

Stellenbosch University Stellenbosch University ( af, Universiteit Stellenbosch) 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 ...

File:University of the Western Cape - Central Campus entry.jpg,

University of the Western Cape The University of the Western Cape (UWC) is a public research university in Bellville, near Cape Town, South Africa. The university was established in 1959 by the South African government as a university for Coloured people only. Other un ...

File:The Wits University Great Hall.jpg,

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( o ...

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 Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS Business School) is a business school in South Africa and an affiliate of the University of Pretoria. It is located in the heart of Illovo, Johannesburg, close to the Sandton financial and commercial b ...

has a campus in Illovo and an inner-city campus on Pritchard Street, in downtown Johannesburg. Note⁴: Split out from the

University of Limpopo The University of Limpopo is a university in the Limpopo Province, South Africa. It was formed on 1 January 2005, by the merger of the University of the North and the Medical University of South Africa (MEDUNSA). These previous institutions for ...

into which Medical University of South Africa had previously merged.

Comprehensive universities

File:University of Johannesburg.jpg,

University of Johannesburg The University of Johannesburg (UJ) is a public university located in Johannesburg, South Africa. The University of Johannesburg came into existence on 1 January 2005 as the result of a merger between the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), the ...

File:University of South Africa taken with cellphone camera.jpg,

University of South Africa The University of South Africa (UNISA), known colloquially as 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, U ...

(Unisa) File:UniversityOfVenda.JPG,

University of Venda The University of Venda (Univen; ve, Yunivesithi ya Venḓa, af, Universiteit van Venda) is a South African comprehensive rural-based institution, located in Thohoyandou in Limpopo province. It was established in 1982 under the then Republi ...

Note¹: By merger of existing institutions
Note²: By merger of existing institutions

Universities of technology

File:CPUT Cape Town Campus.jpg,

Cape Peninsula University of Technology Cape Peninsula University of Technology, a university in Cape Town, South Africa, 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 b ...

File:Tshwane University of Technology.jpg,

Tshwane University of Technology Tshwane University of Technology (TUT; af, Tshwane-Universiteit vir Tegnologie) is a higher education institution in South Africa that came into being through a merger of three technikons — Technikon Northern Gauteng, Technikon North-West an ...

Note¹: By merger of existing institutions

Private degree-granting seminaries, institutes and colleges

Theological seminaries

Institutes

University rankings

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.

University research collaboratives

Cape Higher Education Consortium The Cape Higher Education Consortium (CHEC) is an association whose members are the four universities in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It describes itself as "A Network of Learning for the Western Cape". It was originally registered ...

(CHEC) * Foundation of Tertiary Institutions of the Northern Metropolis (FOTIM) *

Higher Education South Africa Universities South Africa (formerly Higher Education South Africa or HESA) is an association of the 23 public universities in South Africa. Its function is to form a unified voice for the interests of its members, to form common policy for its memb ...

(HESA) *

Southern Education and Research Alliance The Southern Education and Research Alliance (SERA), founded in 1999, is a strategic alliance formed between the University of Pretoria and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. The alliance collaborates locally and internationally ...

(SERA)

Defunct institutions

References

{{South African Business Schools

Universities in South Africa A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...