🇳🇦 19 institutions · 86,646 students · 2024

Higher education in Namibia — every institution that reports to the regulator, with five years of students.

How many students each university and college had from 2020 to 2024, how many study full-time, part-time or at a distance, how many staff they employ and how their students did in the 2024 examinations — from the National Council for Higher Education's statistical yearbook.

How to apply in Namibia →Directly to each institution · next date: Applications close (normal period, extended), 30 October 2026 (Namibia University of Science and Technology) · checklist and calendar file

All 20 institutions →Other countries in Africa

Students, 2024

86,646

66,656 in 2020

At the 3 public institutions

59.1%

Studying at a distance

18.1%

11.4% part-time

Not Namibian citizens

2.6%

2,286 students

What it costs, and what isn't here

The yearbook has no fees. Each institution sets its own, and may charge Namibian, SADC and other students different rates — the University of Namibia does — so ask the institution what you would pay.

No entry requirements, fees or graduate outcomes are published per institution, and graduates are counted only for the whole country — so this is a directory, not a matcher.

The 20 institutions in the yearbook

Students per academic year, largest first. 19 institutions submitted data for 2024: 3 public and 16 private. “—” for a year means the institution submitted no data for it. It is not zero, and it doesn't mean the institution had closed. The yearbook counts students on programmes at National Qualifications Framework levels 5 to 10, access and foundation programmes included; vocational (TVET) programmes and qualifications below level 5 are left out, so an institution's own total can be higher. Figures are headcounts, not full-time equivalents, for the academic year, which usually runs from January to December.

Institution	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	At a distance, 2024
University of NamibiaUNAM · Public	30,216	29,923	28,685	26,164	29,546	14.6%
International University of ManagementIUM · Private	10,396	11,409	13,225	16,416	19,497	2.4%
Namibia University of Science and TechnologyNUST · Public	12,197	12,340	14,111	15,996	17,816	12.2%
Welwitchia UniversityPrivate	1,612	2,552	4,510	6,134	4,988	None
Triumphant CollegePrivate	878	1,245	2,078	2,766	3,871	21.6%
Namibia College of Open LearningNAMCOL · Public	4,939	5,679	4,468	5,410	3,804	100.0%
Institute for Open LearningIOL · Private	4,473	3,815	2,582	3,064	2,531	100.0%
International Training College LinguaITC-Lingua · Private	750	684	569	609	1,849	47.4%
I-Care Health Training InstituteI-Care HTI · Private	—	—	—	1,268	967	None
River Higher Institute of TechnologyPrivate	511	283	457	625	434	4.4%
Headstart Montessori Teacher Training CollegePrivate	448	494	488	433	341	100.0%
Shiramed Medical InstituteShiramed MI · Private	—	—	—	624	308	None
Sunshine Private CollegePrivate	—	44	147	293	223	98.2%
Limkokwing University of Creative TechnologyPrivate	—	47	28	160	185	None
African Leadership InstituteALI · Private	30	69	115	122	153	100.0%
St. Charles Lwanga Major SeminaryPrivate	50	57	63	57	50	None
Botho University of NamibiaPrivate	21	28	67	—	40	None
Namibia Evangelical Theological SeminaryNETS · Private	33	19	34	33	37	None
Philippi Trust NamibiaPrivate	11	11	66	52	6	None
Tulipohamba Training and Assessment InstituteTulipohamba TAI · Private	91	233	127	—	—	—

Tulipohamba Training and Assessment Institute submitted no data for 2024: its row shows the years it did report, and it has no page of its own.

NCHE's list of registered private institutions also names Atlantic Training Institution and Meyfield College, which have no figures in the 2024 yearbook.

Students in Namibia, 2020–2024

20202021202220232024

Year	Students	Women	At public institutions
2024	86,646	63.6%	59.1%
2023	80,226	64.7%	59.3%
2022	71,820	63.9%	65.8%
2021	68,932	65.3%	69.5%
2020	66,656	65.9%	71.0%

What students study, 2024

By field of learning, for the whole country — the yearbook doesn't give fields per institution.

Education, Training and Development33,600 · 38.8%
Business, Commerce and Management Studies17,128 · 19.8%
Health Sciences and Social Services12,360 · 14.3%
Physical, Mathematical and Computer Sciences6,543 · 7.6%
Communication Studies and Language4,303 · 5.0%
Manufacturing, Engineering and Technology3,329 · 3.8%
Law, Military Science and Security3,027 · 3.5%
Agriculture and Nature Conservation2,817 · 3.3%
Physical Planning and Construction1,044 · 1.2%
Services and Life Sciences994 · 1.1%
Human and Social Studies988 · 1.1%
Culture and the Arts513 · 0.6%

Qualifications studied for, 2024

Access and Foundation Programmes3,471 · 4.0%
Certificates6,901 · 8.0%
Diplomas14,456 · 16.7%
Bachelor Degree17,850 · 20.6%
Bachelor Honours Degree34,577 · 39.9%
Professional Bachelor Degree3,752 · 4.3%
Postgraduate Certificate/Diploma1,436 · 1.7%
Master Degree3,661 · 4.2%
Doctorate Degree542 · 0.6%

Students who aren't Namibian citizens

Citizenship in 2024. Citizenship is published for the whole country only, not per institution.

Angola413
Botswana43
South Africa108
Zambia135
Zimbabwe845
Other SADC Countries470
Other African Countries181
European Countries53
American Countries13
Asian and Oceanic Countries25

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Source: National Council for Higher Education (NCHE), 2024 Namibia Higher Education Statistical Yearbook (NHESY), used under NCHE's terms: “This publication may be used in part or in its entirety, provided the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) is acknowledged as the source.” Shares, sums and the selection of figures are CollegeMatcher's own, as are the full names (from NCHE's list of abbreviations and register) and the websites, checked in October 2026.