St Augustine College of South Africa

St Augustine College of South Africa is the country’s only Catholic university institution – a private higher education provider in Johannesburg specialising in the humanities. It opened in July 1999, the realisation of a long-held vision (first proposed in the 1950s) for a Catholic university in South Africa, and was canonically recognised as a Catholic university by the South African Catholic Bishops’ Conference and the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education in 2008. While current legislation reserves the title “university” for public institutions, St Augustine functions as one in every academic sense.

The college is registered with the Department of Higher Education and Training under the Higher Education Act and its qualifications are accredited by the Council on Higher Education and registered on the National Qualifications Framework. It is also recognised as a National Research Foundation institution, and belongs to global Catholic academic networks including the International Federation of Catholic Universities. Its offering spans the Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Theology through to honours, master’s (such as the MPhil in Applied Ethics and MPhil in Theology) and doctoral degrees, alongside a Higher Certificate in Biblical Studies and short courses, increasingly delivered through blended and online learning.

Guided by its motto “Intellige ut credas” (“Understand that you may believe”), St Augustine holds faith and reason to be complementary, and is committed to ethical leadership, the dignity of the human person and the common good. Through small classes and personalised, interdisciplinary teaching – and resources such as the renowned Grimley theological library – it aims to produce graduates who “think rigorously, so as to act rightly and to serve humanity better.” Full programme, fee and admissions details are available directly from the institution.