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University of Cape Town tops our list of 29 Public universities in South Africa at #150 in the QS World University Rankings 2026. University of Witwatersrand (QS World #291) and University of Johannesburg (QS World #308) complete the top three. Across the whole list there are 146 courses to choose from.
29 universities · ranked best first
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Public University · 20 courses
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Public University · 7 courses
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Public University · 42 courses
Public University · 32 courses
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5 of these universities hold a QS World position, from #150 (University of Cape Town) to #587 (University of KwaZulu-Natal); they are listed first, in that order. The rest are ordered by research impact. University of Cape Town has the largest research record in this group, with 7,722,103 citations and an h-index of 712. 2 universities have neither a QS position nor a research record yet and appear at the end, marked "Not yet ranked".
The split is 29 public to 0 private institutions. The oldest is University of Fort Hare, founded in 1916. Walter Sisulu University for Technology and Science is the largest, with 27,500 students.
By level: 75 bachelor's, 51 diploma, 13 master's and 4 phd / doctorate. The most common subjects are Business & Management (33), Medicine & Health Sciences (18), Agriculture & Environment (17) and Engineering (14). The usual length is 4 years and 2 years. 99% are full-time and 2 can be studied online. Start dates lean to Fall (100% of courses with a stated intake) and Spring (97% of courses with a stated intake). Univerisity of Mpumalanga offers the widest choice, with 45 of these courses.
University of Cape Town (QS World #150), University of Witwatersrand (QS World #291) and University of Johannesburg (QS World #308) lead this list. QS World positions come first; the rest are ranked by research impact.
29 public and 0 private universities are on this list.
Most listed courses run 4 years, with 2 years the next most common.
Fall is the main intake — 100% of courses with a stated start date begin then, and Spring is the second.
2 of these courses are listed as online.
Univerisity of Mpumalanga, with 45, ahead of Walter Sisulu University for Technology and Science (42).
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