Melbourne's Monash University claims it will become the first foreign university to open a campus in South Africa this month.
The university had predicted an initial enrolment of 300 students, but only 40 will start their classes a week on Monday.
The A$8 million (£3 million) Monash University South Africa is based at Roodeport -a suburb ten miles from Johannesburg city centre. It will offer undergraduate courses in the arts, business and commerce, information technology, computing and business systems. It hopes students from across southern Africa will enrol. In ten years' time, Monash anticipates a student body of more than 7,000.
A marketing plan, drawn up last year, noted that Monash's profile in South Africa was non-existent and that the university would have to spend $500,000 over two years to promote itself.
A spokesman for Monash said that the initial enrolment was "not one we are displeased with, given the enormous task it has been to build a campus from scratch in ten months, and develop courses, hire staff, print brochures and just generally make ourselves known".