Studying in South Africa
- universities
- 2
- courses
- 40
- English-taught
- 24
- scholarships
- 1
StudyPath lists 2 universities in South Africa and 40 courses between them, 24 of which are taught in English. The cheapest verified fee is about US$3,863 a year, at UCT. 2 of these universities publish their own accommodation prices. Every figure was read from the university's own published page and last checked on 2026-08-16.
What the fee figure leaves out
A published fee is not what you pay
35 courses here, across 2 universities, carry a sourced note about a cost the headline figure does not include — a compulsory contribution, an income-tested scale, an annual increase that applies from year two, a rule about who qualifies. The most widely shared of them:
UCT never publishes a single combined 'international tuition' figure; a first-year international student has to add three separately-published components from the 2026 Student Fees Handbook: the BSc course fee of ZAR 87,000 (Section 11.7, the same fee South African students pay), plus a yearly International Term Fee of ZAR 80,400 for students from outside…
“Students from outside Africa (rest of world) ............................................ZAR 80 400”
UCT · read from STUDENT FEES 2026, Handbook 12 in this series of handbooks | University of Cape Town. Open any course on that page to see the sentence it came from.
What it costs
Annual international tuition, converted to US dollars so the two ends compare. The published figure in its own currency is the authoritative one.
What it costs to live
Student housing published by the university itself or by the body that runs its halls, cheapest first. Shown in the currency and period each one publishes — not converted, because a converted rent is a worse number than the real one.
How South Africa compares with other countries
Ranked against every other country on StudyPath. Countries charge in different currencies, so these figures are converted to US dollars and are approximate; the published figure, in its own currency, is on each university's page.
| South Africa | Among countries | Range across countries | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lowest international tuition you would paya year, cheapest course that charges anything | ~US$3,900at UCT | 37th lowest of 64 countries | ~US$207 (France) to ~US$27,300 (Hong Kong) |
| Tuition-free degrees we listpublished at zero for international students | None | 7 countries have some | 931 in Germany at most |
| Cheapest student housing a university publishesfor a year, from the lowest rate on its own site | ~US$2,400at UCT | 45th lowest of 66 countries | Free (Saudi Arabia) to ~US$12,000 (Iceland) |
| Living costs a student visa requires you to showfor a year, the immigration authority's own figure | ~US$2,200 | Lowest of 19 countries | ~US$2,200 (South Africa) to ~US$25,900 (Iceland) |
Converted to US dollars at the site's exchange rates of 13 Sept 2026. A fee or rent published per term, month or week is scaled to a year, and housing is counted for twelve months of holding the room. The living-cost figure is what an immigration authority requires a student visa applicant to show, taken as a year; the UK's, for example, covers at most nine months, so this overstates it. See student finance for each country's exact wording.
Universities in South Africa
Ranked universities first, then the rest by how many courses they publish. Unranked never means worse — it means QS has not measured it.