University of Cape Town Admission Requirements
GENERAL ELIGIBILITY FOR ADMISSION TO UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMMES
In order to be considered for admission to a programme, an applicant must,
in the first instance, be eligible for consideration. As an undergraduate
applicant to UCT you must be aware of the following, and satisfy criteria
which apply to you.
• National Senior Certificate applicants must, for admission to higher
certificate, diploma or degree programmes have met the NSC
requirements for such endorsement.
• If you do not meet the minimum requirements for university admission
but you are 23 years or older and have a Grade 12 (school-leaving)
certificate, you may qualify for a mature age exemption. If you fall
into this category, you should discuss the possibility of conditional
exemption with the relevant faculty office. Applicants with mature age
exemption are not considered for programmes offered in the Faculties
of Health Sciences and Law.
• Applicants with non-South African school-leaving certificates must
have met the requirements for matriculation exemption.
• All applicants, in the final school-leaving assessment, must have
achieved the minimum criteria for admission to the programme/s of
their choice. These include:
- the required APS, FPS, WPS or MedPS as it may apply to the
programme of choice - performance levels specified for required school subjects
- performances in the applicable components of the NBTs
- any other requirements, as outlined in the faculty sections, that
may be applicable to specific programmes
For applicants writing the National Senior Certificate we use an Admission Points Score (APS), a Faculty Points Score (FPS) and a Weighted Points Score (WPS) to assess your performance at school. The 3 scores are described in detail below.
To calculate your APS, add the six best subject percentages, excluding Life Orientation and score equal for “Advanced Programme” (AP) subjects, but including English and any other required subject(s) for the relevant programme. (In other words for a programme where Mathematics and Physical Sciences are required, take the score for English, Mathematics, Physical Science and the next best three subjects other than Life Orientation to compare your APS). Results below 40% for any subject do not attract a score.
To calculate your FPS, the APS will be adjusted as described below. Three faculties at UCT adjust the APS when calculating the FPS. For the rest (Commerce, Humanities and Law), the APS equals the FPS.
All undergraduate applicants who are normally resident, or at school, in South Africa must write NBTs, and all applicants to programmes in Health Sciences must write the NBTs wherever they reside. In order to calculate the FPS for the Faculty of Science, double the scores achieved for Mathematics and Physical Sciences. In the Faculties of Engineering & the Built Environment, and Health Sciences, the NBT score forms part of the FPS.
In order to calculate the WPS, adjust the FPS by the disadvantage factor applicable to you. This is a percentage between 0% and 10%, except for applications for admission to the MBChB Programme, where the range is between 0% and 20%.