How much money the University of Pretoria makes

The University of Pretoria (UP) received R3.24 billion in state grants and subsidies in its 2024 financial year, as well as R3.12 billion in tuition and other fees.

Along with R1.92 billion in income from contracts and services and R216.43 million in donations, this means the university recorded total income of R9.34 billion in 2024.

UP is one of the country’s oldest and biggest universities, established in 1908 with only four professors and 32 students. Today, the institution boasts more than 54,000 students, nine faculties, and a business school.

It also ranks among some of the world’s best universities, placing between 501 and 600 in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2026.

In South Africa, universities like UP are mainly funded through state subsidies and students’ tuition fees. 

Private contributions have also become more prevalent in recent years, as government subsidies have been declining in real terms.

In its 2024 Annual Report, UP noted that, like the broader South African higher education sector, it continues to face persistent challenges.

Most notably, it highlighted declining state funding and increasing levels of student debt as some of its biggest challenges.

In UP’s 2024 financial year, which ran to the end of December 2024, the university’s state appropriations declined from R3.41 billion in 2023 to R3.24 billion, a 4.84% decline.

This decline has made the university more reliant on private funding and student tuition fees for income, which is why the growth in outstanding student fees presents a significant financial risk to UP.

At the end of its 2024 financial year, UP’s gross student debt amounted to R927.9 million, an over 11% increase from 2023.

This debt represents nearly 30% of the university’s total tuition and other fees billed for 2024, and a 37.7% increase from 2022 to 2024.

UP said this rise in debt can be attributed to several factors, including insufficient funding to support “missing middle” students and South Africa’s ongoing economic decline.

It further highlighted the demand for fee-free higher education and the capping of accommodation fees by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme as contributing factors.

UP uses two indicators to monitor student receivables – provision for student receivables as a proportion of gross student receivables and gross student receivables as a proportion of tuition fee income – which can be seen in the graph below.

The blue bars represent the percentage of outstanding student debt that UP does not expect to collect (i.e., “bad” debt), while the red bars represent the percentage of the university’s total fee income that is still outstanding.

How the University of Pretoria spends its money

The lion’s share – 56% – of UP’s income is spent on personnel costs, followed by depreciation and amortisation (40%) and other operating expenses (4%).

In the 2024 financial year, UP’s total expenses increased by 7.4% to R8.57 billion, largely due to inflation and increases in the provision for bad debts.

The university highlighted in its 2024 Annual Report that operating expenses have generally been increasing at higher rates compared to personnel costs.

However, it said personnel costs, which set the university back R4.79 billion in 2024, remain a critical focus area within UP’s Financial Sustainability Plan.

It explained that various measures have been implemented to reduce the ratio of personnel costs to total expenses, which is why it declined from 57% in 2023 to 56% in 2024.

Another major growing expense for the university was expected credit losses, which reached R117.78 million in 2024, up 28.50% compared to 2023.

In 2024, the university also raised R131.90 million in provisions for credit losses, up from R126.32 million in 2023.

UP’s current policy is that all student loans are due within five years from completion of studies or deregistration. The weighted average interest rate applied for student loans in 2024 was 8.43%.

UP explained that it has already directed R29 million to legal advisors for collection and has been fully provided for. Amounts are only written off when legal attempts for collection are exhausted. 

The university explained that the R131 million provision it has raised relates mainly to UP NSFAS loans that have a history of poor recovery, as well as students who are experiencing financial difficulties. 

UP’s expense categories and the share of total expenses that these categories consume can be seen in the graph below.