Rhodes University occupies a peculiar position in the South African higher education landscape: small enough to feel like a community, prestigious enough to be aspirational, and burdened by an infrastructure crisis serious enough to threaten its own survival. In 2026, the question of whether RU is worth it depends almost entirely on what you’re studying — and how much you value clean running water.
Overview of Rhodes University
Rhodes University — known colloquially as RU or Rhodents — is a public research university founded in 1904 and located in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape. It is a small institution that claims the distinction of having among the best undergraduate pass and graduation rates in South Africa, outstanding postgraduate success rates, and the best research output per academic staff member. With just over 8 200 students, it is among the smallest residential universities in the country.
Rhodes is home to six faculties: Humanities, Science, Commerce, Law, Education, and Pharmacy. The Faculty of Pharmacy is the only standalone pharmacy faculty at a South African university. The Journalism and Media Studies department — housed within Humanities — has produced some of the most prominent names in South African and continental media. Of its student body, 26% are postgraduates and 20% are international students from 40 countries around the world.
Rhodes University holds an overall score of 4.2 stars based on student reviews on Studyportals. On EduOpinions, the platform rates it at 4.4 out of 5. These figures place it among the better-reviewed South African universities on third-party platforms — a notable position given that the institution is simultaneously battling an acute municipal water crisis that has forced lecture suspensions and drawn a formal complaint to the South African Human Rights Commission.
What Students Say About Studying at Rhodes University
Review data sourced from EduOpinions, MastersPortal, iAgora, and student statements reported in national media reveals a consistently bifurcated picture: deep loyalty to the institution’s academic quality and community atmosphere on one side, and serious, ongoing frustration with the physical infrastructure and small-town limitations on the other. Both camps are represented with striking regularity across multiple platforms spanning several years.
Positive Reviews
“I highly recommend RU. It’s a well run institution academically and in terms of the quality of education. You’ll never be put on hold in any department, their administration is always helpful and available.”
This reviewer adds that despite the town’s size, students find ways to have the time of their lives within the first two months, and cites the administration’s responsiveness as a genuine differentiator from larger universities.
“One thing Rhodes does exceptionally well is allowing students flexibility. Even within a structured programme like a Bachelor of Science, I was able to mix my degree with Humanities modules, which is something not many universities offer.”
The cross-faculty flexibility is cited repeatedly across platforms as a structural advantage that large research universities in South Africa do not replicate at the same granular level.
“The town is small, cosy, yet still so vast and rich in the experiences. Not to mention how professional and well-organised Rhodes University is. Other than the water supply issues I wouldn’t trade the experiences for the world.”
Notably, this reviewer both acknowledges the water issue and explicitly sets it aside in their overall verdict — a pattern that appears frequently in positive reviews, suggesting a high tolerance among RU students for the town’s infrastructure failings when weighed against the academic experience.
“I was taught by the best minds in the industry and I was always offered constant help and support from the staff. There is a huge sense of camaraderie amongst all students and student life is fun and inspiring.”
The reviewer adds that career support — including career days and postgraduate programme pathways — was a concrete benefit, and describes Rhodes as “a prestigious institute” without qualification.
“In the U.S. I went to a big university in a huge city. Grahamstown and Rhodes were a welcome change. They were smaller, with a tighter community. I felt very at home at this university.”
This international reviewer stayed a full year beyond their planned six months — an outcome that speaks directly to the quality of the lived student experience at RU, specifically around community, friendliness, and social engagement.
“Rhodes University is an amazing university. I liked the administration system — they are very quick with their response. I love the culture: you get to know people from different backgrounds, learn their cultures and different languages.”
Administrative responsiveness is the single most recurring positive across EduOpinions reviews — a direct contrast to the complaints about administrative delays that appear on platforms reviewing larger South African universities.
Negative Reviews
“In my first week at Rhodes, I was living in res, and we did not have water for two days. When the water came back, all the pipes were blocked, and all the waste came back up and flooded our res. Faeces was coming out of the shower. I was shocked.”
The student, Nonny Beale, was quoted in The Citizen’s September 2024 investigation into the Makhanda water crisis. Her account is one of several in the same report describing raw sewage in bathrooms, blood-stained showers, and students waking at 5am to collect water from outdoor tanks.
“It slows everything down. You have to wake up at 5 o’clock in the morning to get water from the tank outside your res. Sometimes that tank runs out, so you have to walk around looking for water from tanks in other res.”
Student Nondumiso Ntsele described the daily reality of water rationing in Makhanda, where the Makana Municipality has rationed supply to 50 litres per person per day — a ration that has been in place since 2019 according to The Citizen’s reporting.
“Academically, it’s easy to get in but very difficult to get out. The workload can be overwhelming, and many students end up repeating modules because of how tough the programme can be.”
This reviewer also noted that mental health support, while structurally present at RU, was not consistently delivered in practice — describing the counselling services as available but falling short during a personal crisis involving bereavement. It is a nuanced critique: the institution’s intent is not questioned, but its emotional follow-through is.
“How are we going to survive without water?”
In February 2025, News24 reported that the Rhodes University SRC president warned the water crisis in Makhanda was threatening the institution’s very survival. This is not an isolated student complaint — it is a formal, on-record statement from elected student leadership about an existential institutional risk.
“It is a nice place to study, but if one comes from a big city, one might get claustrophobic.”
The small-town limitation is mentioned on every major review platform as a qualifying concern — not a dealbreaker for most, but a genuine adjustment that students from Johannesburg, Cape Town, or Durban are consistently advised to prepare for.
“The studies were holistic and gave an Afrocentric insight to western studies which were quite interesting [but there are areas the university could improve].”
This review flags a support gap in certain departments — specifically around student guidance structures — while crediting the academic content itself. It reflects the EduOpinions BSc reviewer’s point about support being present but inconsistent.
Advantages of Studying at Rhodes University
The following advantages are derived from verified review data, institutional reporting, and credible academic sources — not promotional material.
With the most favourable academic staff to student ratio among South African universities, Rhodes students are guaranteed easy access to academics and close supervision. This is the single most consistent structural advantage reported in student reviews — the ability to actually reach your lecturer by email, or in person, is described as transformative compared to experience at larger institutions.
One of the most well-known departments on the Rhodes campus is the university’s school of Journalism and Media Studies, through which many of South Africa’s most notable media celebrities have passed. Alumni include Al Jazeera correspondent Anand Naidoo, Google Africa and TikTok advocate Fortune Mgwili-Sibanda (Master’s in Journalism and Media Studies), and a wide cohort of radio, print, and digital media professionals. The four-year BA Journalism programme is among the most competitive to enter in South Africa.
The Faculty of Pharmacy stands out as the only one of its kind in South Africa. Professor Sandile Khamanga, a Rhodes graduate and current Dean of Pharmacy, has said the research culture in pharmaceutical sciences at Rhodes is “second to none.” The BPharm and postgraduate pharmaceutical research programmes draw students and researchers from across Africa.
Approximately 26–30% of the student body is postgraduate — an unusually high proportion for a university of RU’s size. RU’s research output per academic staff member is among the best in South Africa by institutional data. Notable recent postgraduate achievements include the awarding of a Fulbright Scholarship to an MSocSci graduate in 2021, and in April 2025, the first Black South African female student to graduate with a Master’s degree in Topology with Distinction did so at Rhodes.
RU’s residential system — where most first- and second-year students live in named halls such as Allan Webb, Courtenay-Latimer, and Desmond Tutu Hall — is consistently described as a formative part of the Rhodes experience. The legendary res system is where students make lifelong friends, get academic support, and join a smaller family within the larger university community — it’s a huge part of the Rhodes identity.
Students consistently cite the ability to combine modules across faculties as a differentiating structural feature. What further differentiates Rhodes is its flexible undergraduate degree offerings — students can combine disciplines from different faculties to tailor their programmes to their interests and career goals. This is reinforced by multiple EduOpinions reviewers who specifically described designing hybrid degrees that would not have been possible at other South African universities.
The Internet in Africa was officially born at Rhodes in 1991, with pioneers leveraging limited resources to make ground-breaking progress. The institution hosts Professor Justin Jonas, lead scientist on South Africa’s Square Kilometre Array (MeerKAT) project, placing RU at the forefront of Big Science in Africa. The AMBA-accredited Rhodes Business School and a RUBIC biotechnology innovation centre further extend the research infrastructure available to students.
First-year students looking to study at Rhodes University can expect to pay anywhere from approximately R15 000 up to R95 000 for full-year tuition fees. On the lower end, this makes RU accessible relative to UCT (from ±R44 000) or WITS. Merit awards ranging from R29 940 to full tuition are available to students with 47 or more APS points in their NSC. The application fee is a flat R100.
Disadvantages of Studying at Rhodes University
The following disadvantages are based on verified news reporting, formal institutional statements, Human Rights Commission filings, and direct student testimony — not editorial interpretation.
This is the defining concern for any prospective RU student in 2026. The Makana Municipality has currently rationed water to 50 litres per day per person — a ration that has been in place since around 2019, affecting people across the town. In August 2024, the campus was without municipal water since Friday, 23 August 2024, and the university had to provide water via tankers to kitchens, residences, academic buildings, and offices. Undergraduate lectures were suspended. The RU SRC and lobby group Not In My Name filed a formal complaint with the SA Human Rights Commission alleging gross human rights violations.
Makhanda is a town of roughly 75 000 people. The nearest major city with an airport is Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth), approximately 125 km away. Students from Johannesburg, Cape Town, or Durban consistently report a significant lifestyle adjustment. Review platforms note limited access to internship networks, professional development events, and industry connections — a practical constraint that can affect employability, particularly in finance, law, and the corporate sector where proximity to economic hubs matters.
While RU’s pass rates are nationally lauded, individual programme difficulty is flagged in student reviews as a two-edged characteristic. The EduOpinions BSc reviewer describes the institution as “easy to get in but very difficult to get out,” noting high module repeat rates. The Pharmacy faculty in particular demands rigorous performance from day one. For students who underestimate the academic intensity — or who enter without adequate preparation — attrition is a real risk.
RU has a Counselling Centre and a Psychology Department-linked ADC Counselling Hub — and the university has formally acknowledged mental health as “an essential component of overall well-being.” However, the EduOpinions BSc reviewer who experienced bereavement during their studies described the support as “not as consistent or proactive as it should be.” The gap between structural support and experiential reality is a documented concern, not a hypothetical one.
Service delivery in the Makana Local Municipality reached the point of collapse, with Makhanda riddled with potholes, water leaks and sewage spills. The South African Human Rights Commission is investigating. The Special Investigating Unit raided the municipality’s offices in September 2024. Daily Maverick reported in November 2024 that a senior engineer was reportedly “warned” not to present a status quo report highlighting crises to national and provincial representatives. The governance failure is structural, not cyclical.
The university told Research Professional News that the water outages were harming its ability to carry out research — for instance, the university has biosafety level 2 laboratories that use water for safety purposes when researchers enter or leave. For postgraduate students in laboratory-based programmes, interrupted water supply is not merely a hygiene inconvenience — it is a direct threat to research timelines, ethics compliance, and degree completion.
Common Complaints About Rhodes University
Across EduOpinions, MastersPortal, iAgora, GroundUp, The Citizen, News24, Daily Maverick, and TimesLive, the following complaint categories appear with identifiable frequency and consistency:
| Complaint Category | Frequency | Primary Source Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Water crisis & sanitation failures | CRITICAL | The Citizen, GroundUp, Daily Maverick, News24, Research Professional News (2023–2025) |
| Small-town isolation / limited urban access | HIGH | EduOpinions, iAgora, MastersPortal — multiple reviewers across years |
| Academic difficulty / module failure rates | MODERATE–HIGH | EduOpinions (BSc review); implied by institutional pass rate emphasis |
| Inconsistent mental health & pastoral support | MODERATE | EduOpinions (BSc); Rhodes Psychology Dept acknowledges Makhanda mental health gap (2024) |
| Limited niche student association variety | LOW | Multiple review aggregators; campus size cited as limiting factor |
| Academic disruption from water outages | CRITICAL | RU official statements (Aug 2024); Daily Sun; Research Professional News |
Rhodes University contributes the highest percentage to the GDP of Makhanda, and if it could not operate effectively the impact would be widely felt in the town. Vice-Chancellor Prof Sizwe Mabizela has been unambiguous: the university cannot simply detach from the municipal crisis. Rhodes hopes to build its own water-treatment plant by mid-2025 as a long-term mitigation measure — but this represents an institution investing in basic infrastructure that should be a municipal responsibility, using resources that would otherwise fund academic operations. As of early 2026, the water crisis remains active and unresolved at the municipal level, with the South African Human Rights Commission investigation still ongoing.
Is Rhodes University Worth It in 2026? A Data-Driven Assessment
The answer is programme-specific and lifestyle-dependent — but on the academic fundamentals alone, Rhodes University’s case is strong.
For prospective journalism students, RU is not merely worth it — it is arguably the only credible choice in South Africa for a four-year undergraduate degree with that specific focus and pedigree. Its alumni network spans every major South African newsroom and extends to global platforms including Al Jazeera and TikTok. Rhodes is particularly famous for its degrees in Journalism and Media Studies, Humanities, Law, and Sciences, and has one of the best undergraduate pass rates in the country. For pharmacy students, the only standalone pharmacy faculty in the country is simply not replicated elsewhere.
The staff-to-student ratio advantage is not marginal — it is structural. At larger institutions, first- and second-year students routinely attend lectures of 200–400 students and have limited direct access to academic staff. The RU model, as described across multiple review platforms, delivers something materially different: lecturers who know students by name, respond to emails, and engage academically outside of formal teaching hours. For students who intend to work hard and need that scaffold of access, RU offers it more reliably than almost any peer institution in South Africa.
The water crisis, however, demands honest acknowledgement in any 2026 assessment. It is not a temporary disruption or a manageable inconvenience — it is a decade-long, structurally unresolved failure of municipal governance that has resulted in sewage flowing through student bathrooms, lectures suspended mid-semester, formal Human Rights Commission complaints, and a Vice-Chancellor warning publicly about the institution’s survival. Stakeholders at Rhodes University say unreliable water supply in Makhanda threatens the historic institution’s survival and sustainability — words that carry a specific weight when they come from the SRC president of a well-regarded university. Any prospective student should approach this with eyes fully open.
The small-town environment question is equally important and routinely underestimated by applicants. Makhanda is not a temporary adjustment — it is the entire context of a student’s degree. Students who thrive at RU are typically those who lean into the close-knit residential community, who value intellectual depth over social breadth, and who are prepared to build a career network through academic excellence and alumni connections rather than proximity to industry hubs. Students who need a large city, active nightlife, internship-heavy environments, or who are accustomed to major urban infrastructure should apply this lens rigorously before committing.
Who Rhodes University Is Best For — And Who Should Look Elsewhere
The following determinations are based entirely on student review data, institutional evidence, and verified reporting — not editorial opinion.
- Journalism & Media Studies students — The BA Journalism programme is nationally and continentally renowned; no equivalent four-year undergraduate offering exists at the same depth anywhere else in South Africa
- Pharmacy students — South Africa’s only standalone pharmacy faculty; the BPharm and postgraduate pharmaceutical research tracks are well-resourced and peer-reviewed as strong
- Postgraduate researchers — Best research output per staff member of any South African university; AMBA-accredited Business School; strong supervisor access; Fulbright-level international competitive outcomes
- Students who value access to lecturers — The staff ratio advantage is structural and real; multiple independent reviewers describe it as transformative to their academic performance
- Students seeking a strong residential community — The res system is described across platforms as a defining, positive experience; it creates networks that persist well beyond graduation
- International students seeking an immersive South African experience — With students from 54 countries and strong Global Engagement Division support, RU offers genuine cosmopolitan exposure in a compact, high-intensity academic environment
- Dependent on reliable daily water access — The Makhanda water crisis is not resolved; outages that force lecture suspensions, sewage backflow into residences, and 5am tank runs are documented realities, not hypotheticals
- From a major metro and reliant on urban infrastructure — Multiple reviewers flag the city adjustment as significant; students expecting Joburg, Cape Town, or Durban-level services will encounter a material gap
- In laboratory-intensive postgraduate programmes — Biosafety Level 2 and other water-dependent research facilities have been directly impacted by municipal outages; degree timelines carry risk
- Seeking industry proximity during your degree — Makhanda’s distance from commercial and financial hubs limits in-person internship access; students in finance, corporate law, and tech who rely on proximity to build work experience networks will face structural disadvantages
- Underestimating academic workload — RU’s academic pass rates are high because the institution maintains standards rigorously; the EduOpinions BSc reviewer describes it as “very difficult to get out,” with module failure and repeat rates that students should factor into their planning
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Rhodes University delivers something rare in South African higher education: genuine academic intimacy at a research-credible institution. Its staff ratio, its journalism and pharmacy faculties, its residential model, and its postgraduate track record are not marketing claims — they are consistently documented by independent student reviewers across multiple platforms over many years.
The water crisis is equally real and equally documented. It is not a risk to be managed — it is a lived daily condition that has produced sewage in bathrooms, suspended lectures, formal Human Rights Commission complaints, and an SRC president warning about institutional survival. In 2026, any prospective Rhodes student who has not researched the Makhanda water situation thoroughly has not done their homework. For those who choose Rhodes with full awareness of both its exceptional academic strengths and its unresolved infrastructural vulnerability, the institution remains one of South Africa’s most distinctive and genuinely rewarding places to study.
