The University of Cape Town was founded at a meeting in theGroote Kerk in 1829 as theSouth African College, ahigh school for young men. The college had a smalltertiary-education facility, introduced in 1874[10] that grew substantially after 1880, when the discovery of gold and diamonds in the north – and the resulting demand for skills in mining – gave it the financial boost it needed to grow. The college developed into a fully fledged university during the period 1880 to 1900, thanks to increased funding from private sources and the government.
During these years, the college built its first dedicated science laboratories, and started the departments of mineralogy and geology to meet the need for skilled personnel in the country's emerging diamond and gold-mining industries. The UCT crest was designed in 1859 byCharles Davidson Bell, Surveyor-General of theCape Colony at the time. Bell was an accomplished artist who also designed medals and the triangular Cape stamp. Another key development during this period was the admission of women.
In 1886 the professor of chemistry,Paul Daniel Hahn, convinced the council to admit four women into his chemistry class on a trial basis. Owing to the exceptional standard of work by the women students, the college decided to admit women students permanently in honour of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1887.
The years 1902 to 1918 saw the establishment of the Medical School, the introduction of engineering courses and a Department of Education. UCT was formally established as a university in 1918,[10] on the basis of theAlfred Beit bequest and additional substantial gifts from mining magnatesJulius Wernher andOtto Beit. The new university also attracted substantial support from well-wishers in theCape Town area and, for the first time, a significant state grant.
View from the east of the Upper Campus atGroote Schuur on the slopes of Devil's Peak; the university moved here in 1928.
In 1928, the university was able to move the bulk of its facilities toGroote Schuur on the slopes of Devil's Peak, on land bequeathed to the nation byCecil John Rhodes as the site for a national university. UCT celebrated its centenary the following year.
Apart from establishing itself as a leading research and teaching university in thedecades that followed, UCT earned itself the nickname "Moscow on the Hill" during the period 1960 to 1990 for its sustained opposition to apartheid, particularly inhigher education.[5]In 1968 the university withdrew the appointment of a black lecturer, Archie Mafeje, under pressure from the government which had declared it a white educational institution. This led to a nine-day protest by hundreds of students; an early example of resistance to apartheid by progressive whites.[11]
The university admitted its first small group of black students in the 1920s. The number of black students remained relatively low until the 1980s and 90s, when the institution, reading and welcoming the signs of change in the country, committed itself to a deliberate and planned process of internal transformation.
From the 1980s to the early 1990s, the number of black students admitted to the university rose by 35 percent. By 2004, nearly half of UCT's 20,000 students were black and just under half of the student body was female. Today the university boasts having one of the most diverse campuses inSouth Africa.[12]
Rhodes Must Fall (#RhodesMustFall on social media) was a protestmovement that began on 9 March 2015, originally directed against a statue at the University of Cape Town (UCT) that commemoratesCecil Rhodes. The campaign for the statue's removal received global attention[13][14] and led to a wider movement to "decolonise" education acrossSouth Africa.[14][15] On 9 April 2015, following a UCT Council vote the previous night, the statue was removed.
The Jagger library at UCT.
#FeesMustFall was a student protest movement[16] which was arguably indirectly inspired by the RhodesMustFall protest. It formally began at theUniversity of the Witwatersrand and spread to UCT andRhodes University and then the rest of the South African universities. It called for the abolition of tuition fee increases for the 2016 academic year. Diverse demands arose such as the abolition of fees and decolonisation of higher education which led to substantial changes at South African public universities.[17] At UCT, the Senate began a widespread curriculum reform process and the university began the process of the renaming of buildings on campus (the most notable example was when Jameson Hall was renamed toSarah Baartman Hall; a process that began in 2019, and was finalized with a ceremony in 2025).[18]
In September 2019, Film and Media studies student Uyinene Mrwetyana went missing. After the community and police began searching, her body was discovered in the Cape Flats area ofCape Town and Luyanda Botha was arrested and convicted for her rape and murder.[19]Her death and the rape and death of other women precipitated widespread public outcry that led to acampus shutdown[20] and protests oncampus, at the Parliament precinct inCape Town CBD and atcampuses aroundSouth Africa.
Subsequently, President Ramaphosa announced[21] reforms such as harsher punishments for sex offenders and the public disclosure of theNational Register for Sex Offenders to stem sexual and physical violence against women and children.[22] Moreover, theUyinene Mrwetyana Foundation was established and a special fund in her name was created to provide scholarships to female students in the Humanities Faculty.[23]
In October 2025, it was announced that UCT would host the firstTimes Higher Education (THE) World Academic Summit in Africa. The Summit will be held from 29 September to 1 October 2026, and will convene hundreds of global leaders in higher education, research, policy, business, and civil society. The 2026 Summit's theme is, "Knowledge, justice, and futures: Universities in the age of intelligence".[25]
Sarah Baartman Hall and Memorial Plaza, the focal point of Upper Campus.Hiddingh Hall Library on Hiddingh Campus inGardens,Cape Town.
The main teachingcampus, known as Upper Campus, is located on theRhodes Estate on the slopes ofDevil's Peak. This campus contains, in a relatively compact site, the faculties ofScience,Engineering,Commerce, andHumanities (except for the arts departments), as well as Smuts Hall and Fuller Hallresidences.
Upper Campus is centered on Sarah Baartman Hall, the location for graduation and other ceremonial events, as well as many examinations. The original buildings and layout of Upper Campus were designed byJM Solomon and built between 1928 and 1930. Since that time, many more buildings have been added as the university has grown. Upper Campus is also home to the main library, TheChancellor Oppenheimer Library, which holds the majority of the university's 1.3 million volume collection.
Contiguous with Upper Campus, but separated from it by university sports fields and theM3 expressway, are the Middle and Lower Campuses. These campuses, which are spread through the suburbs ofRondebosch,Rosebank andMowbray, contain theLaw Faculty, theSouth African College of Music, the School of Economics, most of the student residences, most of the university administrative offices, and various sporting facilities.
The state of the art artificial grasssoccer field has been approved by FIFA for training forWorld Cup teams.[26] The Upper, Middle and Lower Campuses together are often referred to as the "main campus".
TheBaxter Theatre Centre, located on the Lower Campus, is part of the University of Cape Town; it is also the second largest performing arts complex inCape Town, after theArtscape Theatre Centre. It has three venues:
the 638-seat Concert Hall, with aVon Beckerath organ
the 172-seat Golden Arrow Studio
For his contribution of the tract of land which the campus was founded on, a bronze statue of Cecil Rhodes was erected in 1934 on the Upper Campus, overlooking the university's rugby fields. The statue was removed in April 2015 followingpressure from student groups due to its representation ofSouth Africa's colonialist apartheid past and the university's inadequate representation of black students, faculty, and staff.
The upper campus was affected by theTable Mountain fire in April 2021; theJagger Library building, which housed rare books and documents including a large African Studies collection, was gutted.[27]
Upper Campus seen from the rugby fields that separate it from Middle Campus, withDevil's Peak in the background
The university has 19 student residences (or "res" as known colloquially), offering both single-gender and mixed-gender housing. The Department of Student Housing oversees the residence system College House is the oldest university residence inAfrica, having been established in 1887.
UCT's residence system is composed of three tiers. Students living in residence are placed in a tier according to the length of time that they have been in the residence system, studying in the university and service or part-time employment in a residence. As a student progresses through their academic journey they are moved into a higher tier.Postgraduate students are usually housed in the third-tier residences unless employed in lower-tier residences.
The titular head of the university is thechancellor; this is a ceremonial position without executive power. The primary role of the chancellor is to confer degrees on behalf of the university, and to represent the university to the rest of the world.[31] The current Chancellor is fashion entrepreneur andphilanthropistPrecious Moloi-Motsepe who was elected in November 2019 and assumed the role on 1 January 2020[32] after the expiration of MsGraça Machel's second consecutive 10-year term.
The University Council is the highest ranked decision-making and appointative structure in the university.[33] With wide-ranging powers of governance over areas such as the strategy, well-being and mission of the university, it is directly accountable to the Government of the Republic through theMinister of Higher Education, currentlyNobuhle Nkabane for matters relating to the university.[33]
It is composed of 30 broad stakeholder representatives such as students, academics, staff and appointees of theCity of Cape Town, Convocation,Premier of the Western Cape and the Minister of Higher Education among others, and the presiding officer of the council, the chair, is currently Mr Norman Arendse (SC).[34] The Registrar, who acts as the secretary of the Council and Senate, oversees academic registration and legal matters, and administers the Convocation, is currently Royston Pillay.[35]
The Convocation, composed ofalumni, theVice Chancellor, Deputy Vice Chancellors, academic staff, emeritus professors and emeritus associate professors, is a statutory body administered by the Office of the Registrar, which provides a platform for former members of the university to participate and engage with matters affecting the university.[36] Helmed by the President of the Convocation, currently Mr Kassi Carl Manlan,[37] it can make recommendations and pass non-binding resolutions in its Annual General Meetings.[36]
The Leadership Lekgotla is a coordinating and decision-making structure composed of senior executives of the university who oversee the day-to-day running of the university.[38] It contrasts with the University Council which arises from the University Statute and exercises supreme governance over the university.
The Leadership Lekgotla's members are senior executives who oversee different areas of the university's operations and policies.[38] The most senior executive is theVice Chancellor (ranked below the Chancellor in the ceremonial protocol and order of precedence of the university) is the de facto head and chief executive of the university,[39] (currently held byMosa Moshabela),[40] who is accountable to the council.
Below the Vice Chancellor are the Deputy Vice Chancellors[41] of Transformation (currently Professor Elelwani Ramugondo[42]), of Research and Internationalisation (currently Susanne Harris[43]) and of Teaching and Learning (currently Professor Harsha Kathard, acting[44]). The Chief Operations Officer, currently Reno Morar,[45] brings together and oversees the functional, support and technical areas of the university's operations.[46]
The university is composed of six Faculties (Commerce, Engineering and the Built Environment, Health Sciences, Law, Sciences and Humanities) which together comprise 57 departments.[47] Faculties are helmed by a Dean[48] and their administrative and operational matters are administered by a Director.
TheSenate has delegated substantial powers to the faculties in academic matters over their internal protocol and management such as on matters concerning class timetables, admission requirements, academic exclusion, examinations, research projects and so on. Faculties vary substantially in student size and in buildings occupied, with the Commerce faculty having the highest student population and the law faculty having the lowest while the Humanities faculty spans the most buildings followed by the Faculty ofHealth Sciences with the Commerce and Law faculties having (by far) the lowest physical footprint.[49]
Notwithstanding interdisciplinary research units and centers, additional academic structures exist that eschew the faculty-based organisational structure. The multidisciplinary Center for Higher Education Development ranks on an equal level as the faculties and the UCT Graduate School of Business maintains substantial latitude over its internal affairs despite being nominally part of the Faculty of Commerce.
The interdisciplinary School of Information Technology, comprising the Departments of Information Systems and ofComputer Science in the Commerce and Science faculties is neither a faculty nor a department but a coordinating mechanism to promote IT education and research.[50]
The departments of the faculties are listed as follows:
Entrance to the Bolus Herbarium Library in the Department of Botany building.
The Kramer Building, home of the smallest faculty, the Law Faculty. The Student Administration building stands to the north (left, in this photo) of the Kramer building, and to the north east stands the School of Economics building, both of which were built in 2011.
The central section of the Chancellor Oppenheimer Library.
The university's endowment (the financial capital and investment funds on which it can draw to carry out its work)[57] is deposited with the UCT Foundation (a legally independent nonprofit organisation) and it is managed by the Investment Office.[58] Through the Distinguishing UCT fundraising campaign, the university is trying to raise its endowment.
As of 2019, its designated endowment stands at R2.5 billion and its undesignated endowment stands at R676 million with R133 million raised for infrastructure projects (bringing the total undesignated endowment to R809 million which the university aims to increase to R1 billion).[58]
There have been several campaigns at the university to divest its endowment. Fossil Free UCT was formally established in 2015 as a campaign by environmental activism lobbying groups and student organisations, most notably the Green Campus Initiative compel UCT to divest from fossil fuel companies which resulted in a non-binding resolution passed by UCT's Convocation in 2017 to support the divestment.[59]
Student lobby groups, most notably the Palestinian Solidarity Front and the SRC called on the university's management todivest from Israeli companies and organisations working in thePalestinian Occupied Territories (among other demands), which, in the end, the university refused to do.[60] Palestinian groups also pressured the university through 'emcampment' protests organised by UCT4Palestine in 2024, with around 10-20 tents set up in public spaces, despite the university not formally authorising the groups to occupy campus grounds.[61][62] Report of an 'unsafe climate' later surfaced, as UCT recorded the highest number ofantisemitic incidents among universities inSouth Africa.[63]
The university's income comes from a combination of government grants, tuition fees, donations, investment and research income. In the 2017–2018 financial year, the university received R1.415 billion in state subsidies, R1.428 billion in tuition fees and R539 million in other income. R1.2 billion was committed to student financial aid for both undergraduate and postgraduate students from the university, the government through the NSFAS scheme and the university's partners and donors.[49]
As of 2018[update], there were 27,907 students; 25% of whom were black South African, 22% were white South African, 18% identified as another race, 15% wereinternational students.[64] In 2016 there were 29,074 students enrolled (18,421 undergraduates and 10,653 postgraduates) and 4,542 staff were employed (1,179 academic and 3,363 professional, administrative, support and service staff).[65]
The UCT Employment Equity Plan April (2010 to 2015) indicated moderate but consistent changes in the demographic makeup of the staff body. The five-year plan specified specific targets ranging from between about 5% to 10% adjustments in the representation of SA black staff. According to the plan the staff makeup would have changed by 2015 by achieving either parity or more SA black staff than SA white in all categories other than senior lecturer and professor positions.[66]
UCT spokesperson Elijah Moholola noted that, in 2017, UCT employed 45 white professors, 38 black African,Cape Coloured orIndian South African professors, 67 foreign national professors and 7 who did not disclose their race.[67]
The university's sports teams, in particular therugby union team, are known as the "Ikey Tigers" or the "Ikeys". The "Ikey" nickname originated in the 1910s as anantisemitic epithet applied to UCT students by the students ofStellenbosch University, because of the supposed large number of Jewish students at UCT.[71]
Stellenbosch is UCT's traditional rugby opponent; an annual "Intervarsity" match is played between the two universities.[72] TheUniversity of Cape Town Football Club also known as the "Ikeys Warriors" is the main team for association football (soccer), representing the university at tournaments such asVarsity Football.
North end of University Avenue looking south, on Upper Campus
As of 2007 there were more than 80 student societies at UCT, falling into five categories:[73]
Academic societies for those interested in a particular field of study or studying a particular topic: The most prominent of these include the History and Current Affairs Society (HCA), the Space and Astronomy Society (SpaceSoc, also aSEDS South Africa chapter),the United Nations Association of South Africa (UNASA), and the Students for Law and Social Justice (SLSJ).
Religious societies, some of which are associated with religious denominations or local places of worship.
National/cultural societies for students from particular countries or particular ethnic backgrounds.
Special interest societies (such as RainbowUCT, the university'sLGBTI society, UCT Mountain & Ski Club, UCT Ballroom and Latin dancing) for those interested in various activities or issues.
In addition to the plethora of student societies, there are several student organisations dedicated to the development of communities surrounding the university in the Cape Metropolitan Area. Some of the biggest include:SHAWCO, Ubunye and RAG.[74] Recently, several students movements have developed, such as theGreen Campus Initiative.
The faculties of Commerce, Law and Medicine have appeared in the top 100 faculties internationally.[85] The Faculty of Law achieved a global rank of 40 in the 2014 QS World University Rankings by Subject.[85]
This section needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. Last update: Line chart is out of date(October 2025)
UCTalumni have gone on to achieve positions in academica, politics and other fields as follows. According to a non-peer-reviewed study conducted by theMail & Guardian in 2018, 6% of members of theParliament of South Africa obtained a degree from UCT (the study had a sample of 247 out of 449 MPs).[105]
TheNational Research Foundation of South Africa rates researchers and academics according to the quality of their research output in four categories. As of 2019[update], 35 staff are A-rated, that being they are internationally recognised leaders in their fields.[112] These are 30% of the A-rated researchers recognised by the NRF, making UCT, by far, the university with the highest number of such researchers.[49]
6 researchers are recognised as P-rated, that being they have potential to become leaders in their fields.[113] As of 2019[update], 15% of South Africa's total NRF-rated researchers (about 524) are employed or associated with UCT.[49] For a comprehensive and up-to-date list of B, Y and C-rated researchers, seethis site.
For a larger albeit inexhaustive list of former and current notable UCT faculty and staff, see theList of University of Cape Town faculty.Jerry Ikechukwu Igwilo impact of information and communication technology adoption on stock market development in Africa.[115]
Tuberculosis researchers working in a Bio-safety Level 3 Lab at the University of Cape Town. The Institute of Infectious Disease is noted for its work on this disease.
The Department ofPhysics is home to the UCT-CERN research centre, which is partially responsible for thesoftware design of the High Level Trigger component of theALICE experiment at theLarge Hadron Collider, as well as other activities related to ALICE.
The Department ofElectrical Engineering is involved in the development of technology for theKaroo Array Telescope (KAT). KAT is a precursor to theSquare Kilometer Array, a proposed International project to build the world's largest radio telescope by 2020. Research groups inRF design anddigital design contribute to the RF front-end and digital back-end of the KAT project.
The Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (IIDMM)[116] is engaged in research on candidatetuberculosis vaccines, and is developing candidate HIV vaccines matched to theSouth African epidemic.
The Department ofArchaeology has found some of the oldest evidence of art and abstract thought in the world. Specifically, engrainedostrich eggshell water containers dated to 60,000 years ago[118]
The African Centre for Cities is one of the few research organisations focusing onurbanism inAfrica.[119]
On 21 September 2020 the new Khoi and San Centre was launched, with anundergraduate degree programme planned to be rolled out in coming years. The centre will support and consolidate this collaborative work on research commissions onlanguage (includingKhoekhoegowab), sacred human remains, land and gender.[120]
University of Cape Town Council's decision to rescindArchie Mafeje's (black) offer for a senior lecturer position due to pressure from the Apartheid government angered students and led to protests on 15 August 1968 followed by a nine dayssit-in at UCT administration building. Protesters faced intimidation from the government, anti-protestors and fellowAfrikaans students from other universities. The police swiftly squashed support for the sit-in. In the aftermath, Mafeje left the country and did not return until 2000.[121]
A debate at UCT over the removal of a statue ofCecil Rhodes spawnedRhodes Must Fall movement. TheFeesMustFall movement, which began at Wits and spread to UCT, was inspired by the Rhodes Must Fall protests.
Since the removal of the Rhodes statue, other art has been removed or destroyed. FeesMustFall students burned 23 of the university's historical paintings in February 2016.[122]
According to GroundUp, art experts connected to the university are concerned about intolerance towards art at the institution, as UCT has removed and censored 75 further "vulnerable" art which it claims are offensive to students.[123][124]
An Artworks Task Team was set up in September 2015 to assess art at the university "with a view to transformation and inclusivity",[124] and went about finding "artworks on campus that may be seen to recognize or celebrate colonial oppressors and/or which may be offensive or controversial", and specifically artworks deemed to be "offensive" in their depiction of black people.
BothStanley Pinker'sDecline and Fall, which makes ironic use of colonial iconology, andBreyten Breytenbach'sHovering Dog, which shows a black person wearing a white mask and a white person wearing a black mask, were removed;[123] andDiane Victor'sPasiphaë, which depicts black farmers with allusions to Greek mythology, was covered by a wooden panel.[125][better source needed] In response, Breyten Breytenbach remarked that UCT were making fools of themselves,[126] while Diane Victor thought UCT's actions were "slightly comical" and her artwork was being understood on a "simplistic level".[127]
Jacques Rousseau, then chair of the Academic Freedom Committee, told GroundUp: "There are a number of artworks in UCT's collection that could legitimately be regarded as problematic. Even so, any piece of art is potentially offensive to someone, and the very point of art is to provoke reflection and sometimes discomfort." The Academic Freedom Committee noted with "grave concern recent instances of threats toacademic freedom".[123]
TheSouth African Human Rights Commission was investigating the matter as of May 2017, in order to determine whether the university was infringing on the constitutional right to freedom of expression, in particular the right to artistic creativity.[124]
The university was the shooting location ofNetflix moviesThe Kissing Booth andThe Kissing Booth 2 and the 2020 Netflix seriesBlood & Water.[128] The Upper Campus residence served as the grounds and building for the show's fictional Parkhurst College.
Memorial Plaza on Upper Campus viewed from the columns of the Sarah Baartman Hall
The Oracle Fountain next to the Department of Mathematics Building; inspired by theI Ching trigrams on theTaoist sun disc
Fuller Hall, a student residence on Upper Campus built in 1928
The rugby fields that separate the Upper Campus and Middle Campus
TheM3 highway that separates the Upper Campus and Middle Campus; a tunnel beneath the highway connects the two campuses.
The Japonica Walk, a footpath connecting the Upper, Middle and Lower Campuses; it is lined with various flora, includingjaponica flowers and oak trees.
The Japonica Walk, looking towards the Summer House Pavilion
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