The 26 public universities of South Africa

South Africa has 26 public universities. They fall into three types, and the distinction is a real one rather than a matter of naming.

The three types

• Traditional universities offer theoretically oriented degrees
• Universities of technology offer vocationally oriented qualifications with structured workplace learning
• Comprehensive universities offer both

All are funded by the Department of Higher Education and Training and all are eligible for NSFAS funding. Unlike schooling, higher education is an exclusive national competence, so the department funds and oversees these institutions directly rather than through provinces.

Traditional universities

• University of Cape Town
• University of the Witwatersrand
• Stellenbosch University
• University of Pretoria
• University of KwaZulu-Natal
• University of the Free State
• University of the Western Cape
• Rhodes University
• University of Fort Hare
• University of Limpopo
• Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University
• North-West University
• Sol Plaatje University

Universities of technology

• Cape Peninsula University of Technology
• Central University of Technology, Free State
• Durban University of Technology
• Mangosuthu University of Technology
• Tshwane University of Technology
• Vaal University of Technology

Comprehensive universities

• University of Johannesburg
• Nelson Mandela University
• Walter Sisulu University
• University of Venda
• University of Zululand
• University of Mpumalanga
• University of South Africa

The two newest

Sol Plaatje University in Kimberley and the University of Mpumalanga in Mbombela both opened in 2014. They were the first universities established in post-apartheid South Africa, and they gave the Northern Cape and Mpumalanga their first universities. Sefako Makgatho followed in 2015, formed from the former MEDUNSA campus after it was separated from the University of Limpopo.

The largest

The University of South Africa is by a wide margin the largest, with more than 370,000 students. It teaches exclusively at a distance and enrols close to a third of all South African students. It is also the oldest institution on the list in one sense: it was founded in 1873 as the University of the Cape of Good Hope, and became the first public university in the world to teach entirely at a distance in 1946.