[17] Since 1997, the university has produced more research outputs every year than any other institution of higher learning in South Africa, as measured by the Department of Education's accreditation benchmark.

The DHET report, released in March 2019, shows that UP achieved the highest percentage (10,93%) of the total research output units of all South African universities for 2017.

A long time might have to pass, and for a hundred years we might have to watch the grass growing on our lawns before that day arrives, but noble beginning has been made.The proposal for a university for the capital, first mooted in the Volksraad in 1889, was interrupted by the outbreak of the Anglo–Boer War in 1899.

[26][27][1] Instruction commenced with 32 students, 4 professors and 3 lecturers in the Kya Rosa, 270 Skinner Street a late Victorian residence purchased from Leo Weinthal the then owner of The Press (forerunner to the Pretoria News newspaper).

[25] In 1910, the colonial secretary, General Jan Smuts tabled the act constituting the university as a separate entity before the Transvaal Parliament, the "Transvaalse and Universiteits-Inlijvingswet" Law 1 of 1910.

[38] The TUC originally established as an English-medium institution had evolved into the only fully bilingual university in South Africa and remained as such until the early 1930s.

[25] The period of 1948–1982 is characterised by the substantial increase in numbers of an almost exclusively white student body and the concomitant physical growth of the university infrastructure.

[25] In the mid-1960s, the university urgently required additional land and acquired the adjacent property of Christian Brothers' College, Saint Gabriel's.

The now defunct Vista University's Mamelodi campus was incorporated on 2 January 2004, as part of the restructuring of South African tertiary institutions.

[48] The university's main campus and central administration offices are situated in the suburb of Hatfield, Pretoria and houses six of the nine faculties.

[49][50] The campus, bordered by the suburb of Brooklyn to the south and Hatfield to the north, was built over 24 hectares (59 acres) and has more than 60 buildings of historical value.

[52] Adjacent to the sport grounds is the university's experimental farm, which is used to conduct field experiments for the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.

The university's art collection consists primarily of paintings, sculptures and graphic works by South African artists including the likes of Jacobus Hendrik Pierneef, Gregoire Boonzaier, William Kentridge and Sam Nhlengethwa.

[62][63] Gold ornaments, ivory, bone, ceramic-ware, clay figurines, trade beads, iron and copper artefacts are on permanent public display.

Besides documents, photos, paintings and tools the exhibits are mainly bronze maquettes and casts of Van Wouw's sculptural work.

[74] The Discovery Centre is an umbrella complex where young children, students and adults can explore the world of science, engineering and technology in a "play-as-you-learn" way.

The Aula was the first opera house to be built in the capital and remained the major venue in the city until the State Theatre's completion in the early 1980s.

[84] The possibility of training veterinarians in South Africa was frequently raised after the first Colonial Veterinary Surgeon in South Africa was appointed in approximately 1874, but it was not until 1920 that the Swiss-born veterinarian, Sir Arnold Theiler, was appointed as Director of Veterinary Education and Research at Onderstepoort under the supervision of the then Transvaal University College.

[93] The now defunct Vista University's Mamelodi campus was incorporated on 2 January 2004, as part of the restructuring of South African tertiary institutions.

The library was designed by the South African architect Gerard Moerdijk, following a donation of £10,000 (£896,733 as of 2023) from mining geologist Hans Merensky and construction started in 1937.

[104] The university's achievements and performance in research locally and internationally, including its collaboration and cooperation with the private sector, industry, science councils, foundations and NGOs, the large number of graduates that it produces (particularly doctoral and other postgraduate students) as well as scientists and engineers[106] and its focus on innovation,[107] contribute directly towards enhancing the South Africa's competitiveness.

[110][111] The strategic alliance formed in 1999 between the University of Pretoria and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has been abandoned for unpublished reasons.

The various service providers are the university's primary programming organisations, serving as a centre of social, cultural, intellectual and recreational life.

The university started the tradition of Rag (student society) (Afrikaans: Jool), a student-run charitable fundraising organisation, in South Africa in 1925.

In addition, the university's Drama Department hosts the annual week-long Krêkvars Arts Festival each July in the intimate Bok, Lier and Masker theatres on Hatfield campus.

[165][166] The HPC, which was established in 2002, has become the favoured location for the pre-departure camps of Team South Africa in addition to being chosen by several national and international federations as their preferred specialisation centre.

[179] Dr. Anton Rupert was a South African entrepreneur, businessman, conservationist and founder of the Rembrandt Group, which eventually split up into Remgro, Richemont, the second-largest luxury goods company in the world by turnover, and Reinet Investments, as of January 2008 the largest component of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.

[184] Russell Loubser is a former CEO of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, and a member of the team that started the futures industry in South Africa in 1987.

Johan Heyns, was an influential Afrikaner Calvinist theologian and moderator of the general synod of the Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk (NGK).

The university paid up under protest at the last minute, stating that an interruption would compromise various facilities including student residences, sensitive research equipment and experiments, data centres and live animals.