This is how South Africa’s universities look

·14 Apr 2018

South Africa’s universities make headlines for various reasons – be it student protests or ranking among the world’s best for a host of different subjects – but many people do not even have an inkling to where these institutes are situated, or how they look.

South Africa is home to 26 universities, split into three different groups:

There are 9 universities of technology focused on vocationally oriented education;
6 comprehensive universities offering a combination of academic and vocational diplomas and degrees; and
11 traditional universities offering theoretically oriented university degrees.

The newest learning institution, Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, located north of Pretoria, was unveiled in April 2015, adding to the two universities launched in 2014, namely Sol Plaatje University, in the Northern Cape, and the University of Mpumalanga.

University	Location
Traditional Universities
North-West University	Potchefstroom
University of Pretoria	Pretoria
University of KwaZulu-Natal	Durban and Pietermaritzburg
University of the Free State	Bloemfontein
University of the Witwatersrand	Johannesburg
University of Stellenbosch	Stellenbosch
University of Cape Town	Cape Town
University of Limpopo	Turfloop and Pretoria
University of the Western Cape	Tygerberg, Cape Town
University of Fort Hare	Alice and East London
Rhodes University	Grahamstown
Comprehensive Universities
University of South Africa (UNISA)	Pretoria
University of Johannesburg	Johannesburg
Nelson Mandela University	Port Elizabeth and George
Walter Sisulu University	East London and Mthatha
University of Zululand	Empangeni
University of Venda	Thohoyandou
Universities of Technology
Tshwane University of Technology	Pretoria
Cape Peninsula University of Technology	Cape Town
Durban University of Technology	Durban and Pietermaritzburg
Central University of Technology	Bloemfontein
Vaal University of Technology	Vanderbijlpark
Mangosuthu University of Technology	Umlazi, Durban
Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University	Pretoria
University of Mpumalanga	Mbombela
Sol Plaatje University	Kimberley

The images below were captured using Google Earth‘s impressive 3D-modelling technology, which covers a surprisingly large portion of South Africa’s cities, including 13 of South Africa’s universities.

University of Cape Town