Page 12 - CAO Handbook 2026 Entry

1.4. IMPORTANT NOTICE AND TERMS AND CONDITIONS
22. Institutions start making offers early in the year preceding the year of entry. It is in your best interest to submit your valid application as early as possible. The following year’s January applications open on 01 March of the year preceding the entry year.
23. Subject to item 21 above, and if requested by an institution we will send you an SMS or an emailed letter to inform you of any offers that you have been extended by an institution to which you have applied. You must ensure that we always have your current email address to which we can send offer letters as institutions often have a cut-off date or period for your response. If the acceptance of the offer is not received by the institution within the stipulated cut-off period, the institution reserves the right to withdraw the offer.
24. Offers to study may be withdrawn if:
24.1 You don’t – within the period stipulated by the institution – tell the
institution you want to accept the offer.
24.2 The conditions of the offer are not met.
24.3 The institution discovers that you have provided false information in
your application, e.g., you have not declared that you have previously
been registered or studied at that or another post school institution.
25. You will receive either an email or SMS to inform you if you have been
unsuccessful for any of the programme choices for which you applied.
26. Applicants should apply and pay on or before the programmes’ published closing dates. Applicants may still apply after the programme closing date, but applications received after these dates will be flagged as being late and each institution has its own rules and procedures on how they deal with applications received after the programme closing date, e.g., your application may only be considered after all ‘on-time’ applications have been considered and only if places are still available. Even though your application is received after the programme closing date and is considered as being ‘late’, you still only pay the ‘on-time’ advertised administration fee until 31 October for programmes applied for 1st semester and 31 May for programmes applied
for the 2nd semester of the year of entry.
27. Programme choices with the note: ‘No Applications will be considered
if received after the programme closing date’ will not be considered if the application or administration fee is/are received after the advertised programme closing date.
28. There is ONE date on which the LATE ADMINISTRATION FEE takes effect, i.e. 01 November for first semester programmes and 01 June for second semester programmes irrespective of individual programme closing dates for certain programmes as indicated by the institution.
29. If, after you have applied, you want to change your programme choices, or rearrange the order of your choices, you must go to www.cao.ac.za, click on the ‘Change of Mind’ icon and follow the instructions.
30. A‘ChangeofMind’isautomaticallyprocessedimmediatelyonceithasbeen completed online and the administration fee received. See fee structure on page 24.
31. Anynumberofprogrammechanges/additions(uptosixprogrammes)inthe same Change of Mind Request is considered as one for payment purposes. 32. If you submit qualification/programme changes/additions in more than
one Change of Mind Request and/or at different times, each Change of Mind Request submission will be regarded as a separate request and an administration fee must be paid for each submission, not for each qualification/ programme change.
33. Payment/s for multiple COM Request submissions will be allocated and processed strictly in the sequence that the COM Request was received by CAO i.e. the earliest COM request first.
34. If you have applied to study in Jan/Feb 2025 but did not register, you have an opportunity to extend your application to the next available entry term (June 2025) or year (Jan/Feb 2026). This request, together with the COM administration fee, must reach the CAO by 31 March 2025. If you miss this deadline, you must make a new application and pay the full administration fee.
35. Every attempt has been made to ensure that the information in the annually published Handbook is accurate and up to date at the time of going to print. However, institutions continually update their programmes and entry requirements.
36. During the course of the year, institutions may make new programmes available that were not finalised in time to be included in this Handbook – check our website www.cao.ac.za, Facebook page or contact our Call Centre on 031 268 4444 for updates.
8 CAO HANDBOOK ENTRY 2026