The University of Cape Town (UCT) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. It is located in the Western Cape Province. The University of Cape Town (UCT) was established in 1829 as the South African College, making it the country's oldest higher education institution. Together with Stellenbosch University, which obtained full university status on the same day in 1918, it is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest existent university in Sub-Saharan Africa. This university is ranked the best university in South Africa.

The University of Cape Town is made up of 57 departments organized into six faculties, as well as the multidisciplinary Centre for Higher Education Development. It has between 29,000 and 30,000 students studying liberal arts, pure sciences, and professional degrees, ranging from bachelor's degrees (NQF 7) to doctoral degrees (NQF 10). A thriving student community of over 100 societies and clubs caters to a wide range of interests, including religion, politics, culture, community outreach, and sport, and is well-represented in national leagues such as the Varsity Cup. The moniker "Ikeys" comes from the historic (and ongoing) intellectual, sports, and political rivalry between UCT and Stellenbosch University. Stretching over six campuses in the Cape Town suburbs of Rondebosch, Hiddingh, Observatory, Mowbray and the V&A Waterfront, the medium of instruction is solely in the English language.

In the QS World University Rankings, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, and the Academic Ranking of World Universities, UCT is the highest-ranked African university, and its Commerce, Law, and Medicine faculties are consistently ranked among the top hundred in the world. It is the only African member of the World Economic Forum's Global University Leaders Forum (GULF), which is made up of 26 of the world's finest universities. The Nobel Prize has been awarded to five UCT alumni, staff members, and researchers. As of March 2020, 35 UCT employees are A-rated NRF researchers (representing 30% of the national total) and 88 employees are members of the South African Academy of Sciences.

Established: 1 October 1829

Location: Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

Website: https://www.uct.ac.za/

The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg is a multi-campus public research university in Johannesburg, South Africa[5]. It is located in the northern sections of the city. Wits University or Wits is the most frequent name. The university, like Johannesburg and the Witwatersrand in general, has its roots in the mining industry. It is the third-oldest South African institution in continuous operation, having been founded in 1896 as the South African School of Mines in Kimberley.

As of 2018, the university had 40,259 students enrolled, with around 20% of those living on campus in the university's 17 houses. Undergraduate studies account for 63 percent of the university's overall enrollment, with postgraduate studies accounting for 35 percent and Occasional Students accounting for the remaining 2%.

Wits University is the highest ranked university in Africa, according to the 2017 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). In 2016, the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) named Wits as the best university in South Africa.

Established: 1922
Location: Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa

Website: https://www.wits.ac.za/

Stellenbosch University is a South African public research university located in the town of Stellenbosch in the Western Cape region. Together with the University of Cape Town, which obtained full university status on the same day in 1918, Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest existent university in Sub-Saharan Africa. SUNSAT, Africa's first microsatellite, was constructed and launched in 1999 by Stellenbosch University (abbreviated as SU).

The Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities was signed by Stellenbosch University, the first African university to do so.

Stellenbosch University is organized into ten faculties and has over 150 departments. There are over 40 research (and other) institutions in the city. The following faculties are located on the main campus: Arts and Social Sciences, Science, Education, AgriSciences, Law, Theology, Economic and Management Sciences, Engineering.

The university is one of only three public universities in the Western Cape, and one of around 20 in South Africa. Stellenbosch University was placed third in Africa and 251-275 in the globe in the newest edition of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. The university was recently ranked 390 in the world and third in Africa by another respectable rating system, QS World University Rankings.

Established: 1918
Location: Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa

Website: http://www.sun.ac.za/english

The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) is a South African university with five campuses in the KwaZulu-Natal area. The University of Natal and the University of Durban-Westville merged on January 1, 2004, to establish the University of Natal-Westville. The institution is controlled by the Higher Education Act of 1997, and its constitution is outlined in the University of KwaZulu-Natal Statute, which was ratified by the South African Minister of Education and the South African Parliament.

The university is separated into five distinct campuses, which correlate to the university's administrative and academic departments. Specific academic departments (education and medicine) are housed on two campuses (Edgewood and the Medical School), but the rest of the university's academic divisions are spread over Howard College, Pietermaritzburg, and Westville.

In 2018, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings placed UKZN fourth among South African universities, and the QS World University Rankings ranked it sixth. UKZN has a long history of excellence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and is currently ranked first in the country in physical sciences and engineering, second in computer science, and third in mathematics. A number of notable entrepreneurs and innovators have come out of the university. By the amount of venture capital funding raised by Unicorn startups formed by UKZN alumni in Q4 2020, it was ranked top in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Established: 1 January 2004

Location:

• Durban, Westville, Pinetown
• Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Website: https://ukzn.ac.za/

The University of Pretoria is a public research university with multiple campuses in Pretoria, South Africa's administrative and de facto capital. The university began as the Pretoria campus of the Johannesburg-based Transvaal University College in 1908, and it is the fourth South African institution to be granted university status in continuous operation. The institution has expanded from 32 pupils in a single late Victorian house to almost 53,000 students in 2019. On a total of 1,190 hectares, the university was developed on seven outlying campuses.

There are nine faculties and a business school within the university. The University of Pretoria Faculty of Veterinary Science, founded in 1920, is Africa's second-oldest veterinary school and South Africa's only veterinary school. The university's Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) has continuously been regarded as the top business school in Africa for executive education, as well as being listed in the top 50 in the world. The GIBS Executive MBA was ranked first in Africa and 60th in the world by the Financial Times in 2012. Today, this university still is one of the best university in South Africa.

According to the Department of Education's accreditation criterion, the university has produced more research outputs every year since 1997 than any other institution of higher learning in South Africa. In 2008, the institution awarded 15.8% of all master's and doctoral degrees in South Africa, the country's highest ratio. According to the DHET report released in March 2019, UP has the highest percentage (10.93%) of all South African institutions' total research output units in 2017. According to the 2019 Web of Science Index, fifty-three UP researchers are in the top 1%.

Established: 4 March 1908

Website: up.ac.za

The University of Johannesburg (UJ) is a South African state university in Johannesburg. The University of Johannesburg was founded on January 1, 2005, when the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), the Technikon Witwatersrand (TWR), and the Vista University Soweto and East Rand campuses merged. The former Vista University's Daveyton and Soweto campuses were merged into RAU prior to the merger. It is typical for alumni to refer to the university as RAU as a result of the merging of Rand Afrikaans University (RAU). Professor Tshilidzi Marwala, the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of UJ, began office on January 1, 2018. Prof Ihron Lester Rensburg served as Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Johannesburg from 2005 until 2017.

Among the 26 public universities that make up South Africa's higher education system, the newly established university is one of the country's largest comprehensive contact institutions. More than 50 000 students attend UJ, with more than 3000 international students from 80 countries.

Established: 1 January 2005

Location: Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa

Website: https://www.uj.ac.za/

In South Africa, the North-West University (NWU) is a public research university with campuses in Potchefstroom, Mahikeng, and Vanderbijlpark. In 2004, the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, which also had a branch in Vanderbijlpark, and the University of North-West (previously the University of Bophuthatswana) merged to establish the University of North-West. The North-West University became one of South Africa's largest universities after merging, with the country's third-largest student population (full-time and distance education). The university's headquarters are located on the Potchefstroom campus.

The NWU is dedicated to operating as a single, integrated, multi-campus institution that promotes equity, redress, and globally competitive teaching and research on all three campuses. In eight faculties, core activities such as teaching, learning, and research are linked with community engagement and innovation, with the majority serving both distance and contact students.

The NWU provides more than simply an education; it also provides people with a sense of belonging in the world. Academically, students have a lot of options and flexibility, which allows them to reach their full potential and begin planning for their future jobs. The university is a member of the global higher education community because of its engagement with other universities and institutes throughout the world. Student and staff interchange and cooperation in academic, scientific, cultural, and sporting areas are among their internationalization activities.

Established: 2004

The University of the Free State is a public multi-campus university in Bloemfontein, the Free State's capital and the country's judicial center. It was founded as a tertiary section of Grey College in 1904 as an institution of higher learning. In 1950, it was renamed the University of the Orange Free State and declared an independent Afrikaans-language university. There are two satellite campuses for the university. The institution, which was once a whites-only neighborhood, was entirely desegregated in 1996. In 2010, the first black vice-chancellor of a university was appointed.

The Bloemfontein Campus of the institution is located near the city center. There are two satellite campuses for the university. One is in Bloemfontein, known as South Campus, while the other is in the former homeland of QwaQwa, which was part of the University of the North until 2003.

More than 20 sports, medical facilities, and cultural activities, spanning from politics to outdoor life and the creative arts, are available at the university's sporting facilities. It has a student center, the IRAWA, a student newspaper, and KovsieFm, a school radio station. A library, The Sasol Library, as well as the Frik Scott medical library, a career and advice center, a student theater, and a computer center are available to students.

Established1904

Location: Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa

Website: https://www.ufs.ac.za/

The University of the Western Cape (UWC) is a South African public research university located in Bellville, a suburb of Cape Town. The university was founded by the South African government in 1960 as a university exclusively for Colored people. Other universities in the vicinity of Cape Town include the University of Cape Town (UCT), Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), and Stellenbosch University (originally for Afrikaans speaking whites). The Extension of University Education Act of 1959 had a direct impact on the creation of UWC. In South Africa, this law resulted in the segregation of higher education. Only a few non-white universities accepted colored pupils. Other "ethnical" universities, such as the University of Zululand and the University of the North, were also established at this time. It has been an integrated and multiracial institution since even before the end of apartheid in South Africa in 1994.

The University of the West Indies is a research-intensive environment. The academic staff is well-educated, with half of them possessing doctorates. Most departments have graduate programs, some of which have the country's greatest enrollment. Many institutes and centers place a high emphasis on research. There are other notable projects and programs that utilize expertise from several departments and universities. The University of the Western Cape collaborates with the universities of Cape Town and Stellenbosch on a number of projects. Postgraduate students account for 20% of all students at UWC.

Webometrics placed the university 6th in South Africa, 7th in Africa, and 885th worldwide in 2014. The university's Faculty of Law and Dentistry were both named the best in Africa by Webometrics. Today, this university still is one of the best universities in South Africa.

Established: 1959
Location: Robert Sobukwe Road, Bellville, Western Cape, South Africa

Website: https://www.uwc.ac.za/

Rhodes University is a public research university in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, located in Makhanda (Grahamstown). It is one of the province's four universities. The University of the Free State (1904), the University of Witwatersrand (1896), the University of South Africa (1873) as the University of the Cape of Good Hope, Stellenbosch University (1866), and the University of Cape Town (1866) are the province's oldest universities (1829). Rhodes University College, named after Cecil Rhodes, was founded in 1904 with a bequest from the Rhodes Trust. In 1918, it became a constituent institution of the University of South Africa, and in 1951, it became a separate university.

Rhodes University is a tiny, residential university. Most undergraduates complete their first and second years of study while living on campus. The academic year at Rhodes is divided into two semesters, with the first commencing in early February and finishing in early June, and the second beginning in late July and concluding in late November.

In the 2015 academic year, the university had over 8,000 students enrolled, with slightly over 3,600 living in 51 dormitories on campus and the rest (known as Oppidans) living in digs (off-campus residences) or their own homes in town.

Established: 31 May 1904