Record demand for university leaves over 100k students without placement

More than 100 000 recent matriculants cannot be placed at South Africa’s public universities as the number of bachelor passes exceed the space available. All 337 158 students who qualify for university study have to fight – between themselves and with matriculants who were not able to secure enrolment in previous years – for just over 200 000 spaces.

Approximately 615 000 students passed the exams and 47.8% of those obtained bachelor passes.

Some of the biggest and most sought-after universities, such as the University of the Witwatersrand, can only accommodate 6 000 first-year students, while the University of Cape Town can only accommodate 4 500.

This leaves a significant number of students who will not have access to the public higher education system, according to Professor Mbulungeni Madiba, Dean of Education at Stellenbosch University.

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The demand for higher education study in 2025 has been the highest in history, with the University of Johannesburg saying it has received a record number of applications for the academic year. It received 358 992 applications for 10 500 undergraduate spaces.

“This could lead to an increased demand for private higher education. But we don’t have a big private higher education sector in the country and those schools are expensive,” Madiba noted.

South Africa has more than 10 private universities. These institutions offer a range of undergraduate and postgraduate programs, and while they are accredited by the government, they operate independently of the public higher education system. Some well-known private universities in South Africa include the Independent Institute of Education (IIE), Monash South Africa and Stadio among others.

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Private education institutions ‘unaffordable’

“Private institutions of higher education carry their own costs and so they would really want to recover that. It’s not like a non-profit organisation. We will still remain with a pack of students who have no place to go,” Madiba said.

These institutions have fees ranging from R93 000 to R126 000 for first-year study. For example, at Monash University a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree costs R93 480 and an engineering degree at R124 880 for first-year study. A BA degree at the University of Pretoria is offered at R48 000 while an engineering degree is offered at R60 000.

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Private education institutions are unaffordable for the majority of South Africans whose average household income is R16 895, according to BankservAfrica’s latest Take-home Pay Index. Additionally, government initiatives such as the National Student Financial Aid Scheme only cater to public institutions.

TVET colleges – a viable option

Another option that can be explored by those who don’t receive placement at universities is study at Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges, which focus on vocational and occupational education and training, preparing students to become functional workers in a skilled trade.

“We are encouraging students to apply to TVET colleges and if those institutions could absorb some of the students, especially those with maths, it would mitigate against the impact of this. But definitely, this is a crisis,” Madiba said.

He noted that at the moment, there are very few TVET colleges that are functional in the country and those that are left offer good programmes but they are limited.

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“If we worked hard to improve our TVET colleges [and] make sure that the staffing infrastructure is there then that would be a sufficient alternative but as things stand, TVETs cannot absorb many of the students. And unfortunately there are limited work opportunities,” Madiba said.

“We will still see students who did very well lingering the streets with nowhere to go.”

Plans to overcome challenges

South Africa’s unemployment rate for the third quarter of 2024 was 32.1%, translating to eight million unemployed individuals aged 15 to 64. However, youth unemployment was significantly higher at 45.5%, affecting those between the ages of 15 and 24.

The country has 26 universities with a combined capacity for first-year students of just over 202 000. Building more institutions will not help the situation, Madiba said, because the universities have already consolidated.

The National Plan for Higher Education, which was released in March 2001, was aimed at a total overhaul of the education system. This led to the merger of universities such as the Rand Afrikaans University with the Technikon of the Witwatersrand and the two Vista campuses (Soweto and East Rand) to form the University of Johannesburg. In Gqeberha, Port Elizabeth Technikon merged with the University of Port Elizabeth to form Nelson Mandela University.

“The thinking was that they don’t want to produce too many graduates who we are not able to absorb. So, the thinking should be different. We need to ask ourselves what kind of higher education institutions we should be establishing which will really produce graduates who will meet the needs of society. You’ve got to produce a kind of qualification that meets the needs of the 21^st Century,” Madiba said.

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Institutions have increased capacity

Over the years universities have tried to increase capacity so they can accept more students.

For example, the University of Stellenbosch received 90 027 applications for first-year undergraduate programmes in 2025 but only had space for 6 005. Ten years ago the institution could only accommodate 5 000 first-year students.

Stellenbosch University spokesperson Martin Viljoen said this was possibly because of careful enrolment planning, employing more staff, and adding, upgrading and maintaining the required facilities and infrastructure, including accommodation, study facilities and lecture rooms.

Carol Crosley, registrar of the University of the Witwatersrand, said: “In 2015 we had space for 4 900 first-years. The university has grown in size by increasing alternative options of online and part-time courses as there are limits on the capacity of the physical infrastructure to grow.”

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