Established in 2005, with a student population of over 50,000 students (of which more than 3000 are international students from 80 countries), it is one of the largest contact universities in South Africa (SA) from the 26 public universities that make up the higher education system. It Is ranked 7th amongst Africa’s Universities, 5th in South Africa, and ranked within the top 2.3% of universities in the world (QS World University Rankings, 2017/18).