The 2013 Varsity Shield was contested from 28 January to 1 April 2013.
The tournament (also known as the FNB Varsity Shield presented by Steinhoff International for sponsorship reasons) was the third season of the Varsity Shield, an annual second-tier inter-university rugby union competition featuring five South African universities.
The tournament was won by CUT Ixias for the second time; they beat UWC 29–19 in the final played on 1 April 2013.
No team was promoted to the top-tier Varsity Cup competition for 2014.
The top two teams qualified for the title play-offs.