The Faculty of Law takes internationalisation very seriously - in both research and teaching endeavours. Our student body, particularly at postgraduate level, is home to students from countries all over the world. In addition to the usual route to undertake a full degree at UCT Law, we offer two routes whereby students from elsewhere can attend a semester at UCT Law. These are, respectively, the Faculty's Student Exchange Programme (run by the Faculty) and the UCT Semester Study Abroad Programme (run by UCT's International Office). In addition to this, we offer student exchange opportunities not only to incoming students from elsewhere, but to outgoing Master's-level students looking to complete a semester at one of our partner institutions.

Why choose UCT as a Student Exchange or Semester Study Abroad destination?

UCT Law Faculty has a long and prestigious history. With the first law lecture being delivered in South Africa in 1859, in what became the University of Cape Town, UCT Law is more than 165 years old. Home to several prestigious professorial and research Chairs, and two NRF A-rated professors and 14 additional scholars with NRF-rated researchers, the Faculty is also home to many academics who have variously been awarded distinguished teacher awards (local and international). In terms of research for students and academics, the Faculty's excellent law library is linked to major online law databases, and houses 284 top-class journals and more than 85 000 books. UCT Law is a great choice for international students who will be immersed in a primarily English-speaking environment (see here for UCT's English language admission requirements).

Credit-bearing semester course choices (1st semester: Feb - June; 2nd semester: July - Nov) are offered by each of the Faculty's three departments (Public Law, Private Law, Commercial Law), which credits can be transferred to your home institution. International students may choose from across the three departments - from Final Year and Postgraduate electives (see course choices in the SSA section below).

International students on exchange and on SSA are integrated into the core teaching programme to facilitate study  alongside local law students, and to ensure a broad study experience that includes a different legal culture, study with students from across the globe, and an in-depth experience of South Africa.

All the information you need on Semester Study Abroad (SSA) for incoming international students, and Student Exchange for outgoing South African law students and for incoming International students, is available on the Faculty's main website. 

For those interested in incoming and outgoing Student Exchange opportunities with UCT Law, there is some information below, but you're advised to read the main SSA page on the Faculty site. 

For all Student Exchange and SSA students, these are innovative and exciting opportunities to study internationally, experience life in a Law School elsewhere in the world, and gain exposure to different areas of law with different geographic emphases. 

For Student Exchange, we list below the universities with which the UCT Law Faculty has exchange programmes for LLM students. They include, amongst others:

Please note:

  1. This list may be subject to change as the Faculty's Internationalisation Directorate works continually to improve and enhance our exchange agreements as well as expand to include other universities, and renew lapsed agreements with previous partners.
  2. Only current and past students who actually intend taking up an exchange opportunity should apply, as purely speculative applications undermine the selection process and prejudice fellow applicants.
  3. While a small scholarship is available to assist with travel costs, successful applicants are expected to fund their own travel and accommodation for their exchange semester. Some universities are able to offer scholarship support, so please pursue all possible avenues, and be in touch with Patricia Phillips in the Faculty Office.

Please contact the Faculty Office Exchange Programmes Desk for more information about this opportunity, eligibility and requirements, application details, and the link to the online application form.

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The call for applications is variable - watch this space for applications for 2027.