[6] Home to 30,000 students, it encompasses six campuses in the Capetonian suburbs of Rondebosch, Hiddingh, Observatory, Mowbray, and the Waterfront.

[8] The University of Cape Town was founded at a meeting in the Groote Kerk in 1829 as the South African College, a high school for young men.

The college had a small tertiary-education facility, introduced in 1874[9] 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 new university also attracted substantial support from well-wishers in the Cape Town area and, for the first time, a significant state grant.

Apart from establishing itself as a leading research and teaching university in the decades that followed, UCT earned itself the nickname "Moscow on the Hill" during the period 1960 to 1990 for its sustained opposition to apartheid, particularly in higher education.

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.

The campaign for the statue's removal received global attention[11][12] and led to a wider movement to "decolonise" education across South Africa.

Diverse demands arose such as the abolition of fees and decolonisation of higher education which led to substantial changes at South African public universities.

[19] Moreover, the Uyinene Mrwetyana Foundation was established and a special fund in her name was created to provide scholarships to female students in the Humanities Faculty.

[20] In March 2020, UCT opened the Neuroscience Institute at the Groote Schuur Hospital in collaboration with the Western Cape Provincial Government, the first dedicated cross- and interdisciplinary centre for the study of and development of treatments for neurological and mental disorders in Africa.

Upper Campus is centered on Sarah Baartman Hall, the location for graduation and other ceremonial events, as well as many examinations.

These campuses, which are spread through the suburbs of Rondebosch, Rosebank and Mowbray, contain the Law Faculty, the South 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 grass soccer field has been approved by FIFA for training for World Cup teams.

The Faculty of Health Sciences is located on the Medical School campus next to the Groote Schuur Hospital in Observatory.

The UCT Graduate School of Business is located on the Breakwater Lodge Campus at the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront.

The upper campus was affected by the Table Mountain fire in April 2021; the Jagger Library building, which housed rare books and documents including a large African Studies collection, was gutted.

[27] The current Chancellor is fashion entrepreneur and philanthropist Precious Moloi-Motsepe who was elected in November 2019 and assumed the role on 1 January 2020[28] after the expiration of Ms Graça Machel's second consecutive 10-year term.

[29] It is composed of 30 broad stakeholder representatives such as students, academics, staff and appointees of the City 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).

[30] 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.

[31] The Convocation, composed of alumni, the Vice 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.

[32] Helmed by the President of the Convocation, currently Mr Kassi Carl Manlan,[33] it can make recommendations and pass non-binding resolutions in its Annual General Meetings.

The Leadership Lekgotla's members are senior executives who oversee different areas of the university's operations and policies.

[58] The UCT Employment Equity Plan April (2010 to 2015) indicated moderate but consistent changes in the demographic makeup of the staff body.

Five alumni of the University of Cape Town have been awarded Nobel Prizes: Ralph Bunche, American political scientist and diplomat awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950 for his role in the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Professor Allan McLeod Cormack, physicist awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine (1979) for his work on X-ray computed tomography, Max Theiler, virologist awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1951 for developing a vaccine against yellow fever, Sir Aaron Klug, chemist and biophysicist awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1982) for his development of crystallographic electron microscopy and his structural elucidation of biologically important nucleic acid-protein complexes and Professor Emeritus J. M. Coetzee (Literature, 2003).

[citation needed] Notable staff members include Minister of Trade and Industry, Ebrahim Patel, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor,[107] former Premier of the Western Cape, Helen Zille and George Ellis, collaborator with Stephen Hawking and winner of the 2004 Templeton Prize, was a professor of applied mathematics in the Faculty of Sciences.

Jerry Ikechukwu Igwilo impact of information and communication technology adoption on stock market development in africa.

[108] University of Cape Town Council's decision to rescind Archie 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 days sit-in at UCT administration building.

[120] 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.