South African Nursing Council Accredited Nursing Education Institutions

One of the functions of the Nursing Council is to accredit Nursing Education Institutions (NEI's) and the Training Programmes presented by those institutions.  Council is empowered in terms of legislation to perform this function.

In fulfilling these obligations, the Council is protecting the rights of;

Illegal Institutions / Programmes

It is imperative that learners make sure that the institution where they will be trained as a nurse or midwife is accredited by the Nursing Council AND that the training programme (course) is also accredited by the Nursing Council.  If either is NOT ACCREDITED, the Nursing Council will not recognise any of the training the learner has received.  This means that the learner will not be able to practise in South Africa (or elsewhere) after completing the training.  All the time and money that the learner has spent on education and training will be wasted.

Often, such illegal institutions or institutions running illegal programmes try to protect themselves by giving their programmes obscure names like Pre-nursing and telling the prospective learner that by following such a course, the learner will be guaranteed entry into further nursing education (at the same or another nursing education institution).  There is no provision for such programmes in the Nursing Act, 2005 or in its regulations and no such guarantee.  The education and training regulations (available on this web-site) give minimum entry requirements for each nursing education and training programme.

The Nursing Council handles complaints or reports received about illegal institutions and/or illegal programmes operating in South Africa.

All allegations are investigated and, if it is found that an institution is operating illegally or running an illegal programme, the co-operation of the South African Police Services (SAPS) is sought in closing down the institution or programme.  SAPS is involved in this process because in terms of the Nursing Act, 2005 it is a criminal offence for someone to operate such an institution or to offer such a programme.

If you are aware of any institution that you think may be operating illegally or providing an illegal programme, please send full details to the Council so that the facts can be checked.

Click here for contact details.

Lists of Accredited Nursing Education Institutions

At the start of March 2013, there were 327 active accredited Nursing Education Institutions providing a total of 952 accredited Nursing Education and Training Programmes.

 ™    Download the list of Accredited Nursing Education Institutions (by Province and Type)

Please contact the Council to verify your information if a particular institution does not appear on this list.  If information on this list is incorrect, please use the feedback form to notify Council about this - thank you.

Please note that this information is published here in good faith, and the Council cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions.  In particular, Council cannot be held responsible where institutions have decided to cease offering programmes for which they have previously been accredited.  See disclaimer.

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The list of Accredited NEIs is only available in PDF format. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view and print the forms. If you do not have Acrobat Reader, you can download it for free from Adobe.