Deputy Minister of Higher Education Dr Mimmy Gondwe confirmed Stellenbosch University’s preparedness for the 2026 academic year during the first stop of a national readiness tour. Funding, accommodation and NSFAS-related registration blocks dominated a frank and solution-focused engagement with senior management and student leaders. Gondwe praised the University’s student-centred approach and described the visit as “very successful”.

Responding to a national disaster: Policy Playbook leverages AI to fast-track the fight against GBV in South Africa. AI can be a powerful resource for advancing national efforts to stop GBV. The South African FemAI In-Country Lab convened political leaders, women entrepreneurs, academics, and civil society organisations to co-create strategies for using artificial intelligence (AI) to address GBV.

SU is ready to welcome thousands of new students to its campuses. Newcomers will meet mentors, visit campus and learn more about university life. The official welcoming event takes place at the Danie Craven Stadium.

South Africa’s top public-school matriculant has chosen Stellenbosch University for her studies. Abigail Kok will register for a degree in data science and move into Sonop residence. The York High dux is drawn to SU’s academic excellence, student life and social impact ethos.

Stellenbosch University academic Dr Alfred Schaffer has won the Van Ewijk Foundation Achievement Award for advancing cultural ties between South Africa and the Netherlands. The R100 000 award recognises his work as a poet, translator and academic across the Afrikaans- and Dutch-speaking worlds. Schaffer describes the prize as a moment of reflection on a life shaped by language, migration and literary exchange.

SU features in the 2026 Times Higher Education World University Rankings by Subject. Continues to be among the best tertiary institutions globally in several subjects. Performed well in Arts and Humanities, Medical and Health, Education Studies, Law, Life Sciences, Social Sciences, Psychology, Business and Economics, and Engineering.

Soon after Stellenbosch University (SU) marked World Movement Disorders Day with a Parkinson’s awareness flash mob at the Neelsie Student Centre, one of the University’s most celebrated musicians offered a deeply personal glimpse into her life with a movement disorder. The documentary Concerto combines present-day footage with archival clips of the virtuoso in her prime to show how Schumann is finding renewed purpose in the face of devastating loss. To keep playing, Schumann has had to reimagine her relationship with the piano and adjust her technique.

Reuben Lefa Masia, who graduated from Stellenbosch University (SU) with a ​MBChB, hails from Roossenekal, a 2,5 km² dot on the Limpopo map. Masia declared in kindergarten that he wanted to be a doctor. SU’s SOAR programme for first-generation university students provided a pillar of support.

Chérise Adams reframes feminist theory through the lived knowledge of working-class Coloured womxn in the Winelands. Her thesis – written partly in Afrikaaps – centres the care, resilience and everyday strategies of survival often overlooked in mainstream feminism. Her work honours womxn whose intellectual labour has long been misread as circumstance rather than theory.

Communications leader completed a PhD that interrogated how journalism shapes mental health narratives in South Africa. De Vries turned personal loss and lived experience into a study grounded in care, empathy and responsibility. Her research calls for newsroom cultures that treat mental health reporting as an act of public service, not spectacle.