Annual public university graduate numbers, South Africa
The annual number of graduates from South Africa's public universities covering eight key areas: engineering, natural and physical sciences, human health sciences, animal health sciences, veterinary sciences, initial teaching education, masters degrees and doctorates (all subjects). The data comes from the Department of Higher Education and Training's annual reports, except for the 2024 data, which was sourced from a DHET presentation to a parliamentary committee in March 2026.
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The data
6 rows, 11 columns.
- year Year
- Year of graduation 2019 – 2024
- graduates Number
- Total graduates 220758 – 237882
- students_enrolled Number
- Number of students enrolled at South Africa's public universities 1068046 – 1133868
- engineering Number
- Number of engineering graduates at South Africa's public universities 10805 – 13714
- natural_and_physical_sciences Number
- Number of graduates with a natural or physical science degree at South Africa's public universities 9121 – 10960
- human_health_science Number
- Number of graduates with a health science degree at South Africa's public universities 8663 – 9689
- animal_health_science Number
- Number of graduates with an animal science degree at South Africa's public universities 778 – 1509
- initial_teacher_education Number
- Number of teacher education graduates at South Africa's public universities. Find out more about initial teacher education here https://www.education.gov.za/Informationfor/Teachers/InitialTeacherEducation/tabid/416/Default.aspx 28335 – 31657
- veterinary_science Category
- Number of graduates with a veterinary science degree at South Africa's public universities -, 208, 219, 199, 207, 203
- master’s Number
- 12922 – 14726
- doctorate Number
- Number of graduates with a doctoral degree at South Africa's public universities 3445 – 4010
Latest rows
| year | graduates | students_enrolled | engineering | natural_and_physical_sciences | human_health_science | animal_health_science | initial_teacher_education | veterinary_science | master’s | doctorate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 237571 | 1133868 | 10805 | 10960 | 8663 | 1042 | 31657 | 203 | 14726 | 4010 |
| 2023 | 220758 | 1071715 | 11851 | 10218 | 8873 | 778 | 31316 | 207 | 13819 | 3620 |
| 2022 | 225702 | 1077768 | 11936 | 9702 | 9689 | 814 | 31080 | 199 | 13765 | 3690 |
| 2021 | 233257 | 1068046 | 12605 | 10608 | 9558 | 1509 | 29925 | 219 | 13796 | 3574 |
| 2020 | 237882 | 1094808 | 12652 | 9642 | 9646 | 867 | 30809 | 208 | 12922 | 3552 |
| 2019 | 221942 | 1074912 | 13714 | 9121 | 28335 | - | 13519 | 3445 |
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