About UCT and Cape Town

As a newbie to the University of Cape Town (UCT), let us get you up to speed on some need-to-knows about the university. We’ve also thrown in some facts and figures about the Western Cape.

The university is committed to Vision 2030, which has three pillars:

• excellence
• transformation
• sustainability

UCT will:

• attract students with exceptional potential from our country, our continent, and the international community
• offer a transformative and socially engaged undergraduate and postgraduate education
• provide both contact and digitally mediated education
• expand its capacity to offer continuous education and micro-credentials
• produce research that answers the complex problems of today and tomorrow.

We offer 40 different sporting codes at UCT.

Sports facilities include:

• astro turf hockey fields
• tennis and squash courts
• an indoor sports facility
• soccer (including blind soccer), rugby and cricket facilities.

You’ll find the UCT Gym on lower campus near Graça Machel Hall; and the Sports Science Institute of South Africa is based in Newlands, which is just up the road.

For students seeking an affordable fitness option, Zone Fitness, a public gym located near Pick n Pay in Rondebosch, offers a student discount on its membership fees. Remember your student card!

With more than 100 societies to choose from, how can you be bored?

Our societies are run by students, reflect various interests, and are divided into five categories: academic, national/cultural, faith, special interest and political. There’s something there for everyone.

UCT at a glance

*Students by faculty in 2025

• Commerce: 6 295
• Engineering & the Built Environment: 4 537
• Graduate School of Business: 1 407
• Health Sciences: 5 379
• Humanities: 8 080
• Law: 1 337
• Science: 3 565

Total: 30 600

Approximately 110 countries were represented on campus in 2025.

*Over 30 000 students were enrolled at UCT in 2025.

• 17 656 females
• 12 876 males
• 64 transgenders
• 4 unspecified

• 18 014 undergraduates
• 12 069 postgraduates
• 517 occasional students

4 960 new first-year students were accepted at UCT.

UCT has over 4 000 permanent staff

10 things that make UCT unique.

• #1 in Africa: UCT is the highest ranked African university according to Times Higher Education, Quacquarelli Symonds and other leading world university rankings.
• Oldest: Established in 1829, UCT is South Africa’s oldest university.
• SA’s first: In 2021 Groote Schuur Hospital became the first public-sector hospital in Africa to offer robot-assisted surgery.
• CAF and UCT in 2024 signed a historic MoU focused on training African Football Administrators.
• 25 km²: The total area of UCT’s campuses, including its satellite facilities in Gardens, Observatory, Philippi and the Atlantic Seaboard.
• The UCT Hasso Plattner School of Design Thinking Afrika (d-school Afrika) attained Six Star Green Star Design rating, this time, in the as-built category from the Green Building Council South Africa.
• Leadership: UCT appointed its 11th vice-chancellor, Professor Mosa Moshabela, in 2024.
• In 2025, UCT’s Associate Professor Rethabile Possa, the head of the African Languages and Literatures Section, authored what is believed to be the first full scientific book series written entirely in Sesotho.
• UCT’s Professor Elelwani Ramugondo, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Transformation, Student Affairs and Social Responsiveness received the Beacon of Hope Award during the WomenCan Awards for the positive, meaningful and lasting change she has made over the course of her career.
• In 2025 UCT’s senior rugby team, Ikey Tigers, were crowned Varsity Cup winners. They went head-to-head with their rivals, Stellenbosch University’s Maties at the Danie Craven stadium on 14 April – winning their third Varsity Cup title.

10 things you might not have known about Cape Town and the Western Cape

• KwaLanga is the oldest township in the Western Cape and celebrated a centenary in 2023.
• Cape Town is locally known by at least three other names: The Mother City, the Cape of Good Hope and //Hui !Gaeb.
• After being released from prison, Nelson Mandela made his first public speech on the balcony of the Cape Town City Hall.
• Geordin Hill-Lewis became the youngest City of Cape Town mayor in the city’s history when he was sworn in after the 2021 local government elections at the age of 34.
• Table Mountain was originally known as Hoerikwaggo, the name given to it by the indigenous Khoisan people. UCT also has a Hoerikwaggo – a building on upper campus.
• Afrikaans is the most widely spoken language in the Western Cape.
• Cape Town is home to the only commercial nuclear power plant on the African continent. Located at Koeberg, the two nuclear reactors account for 5% of South Africa’s electricity production.
• Cape Town’s beaches, known for making waves both literally and figuratively, have earned the city the title of ‘Best Beach Destination’ in the International Destinations Category at Travel + Leisure India’s Best Awards 2024.
• South Africa has three official capital cities and Cape Town is one of them. Pretoria is the administrative and executive capital, Bloemfontein the judicial capital and Cape Town the legislative capital.
• The Western Cape is roughly the size of Greece.