Page 17 - Demo

Our admissions policy is designed to
• ensure that top achievers are offered places at UCT, and
• to ensure a diverse student body by incorporating measures for redress and measures to ensure that the incoming cohort increasingly re ects the demographic diversity of our country.
We start by
• setting minimum levels of academic achievement for each programme, below which we will not offer a place;
• setting the class size for each programme and setting an aspirational demographic enrolment target for each programme; and
• determining selection methods
The Faculty Points Score
The Faculty Points Score (FPS) (Derived in different ways to meet the needs of each faculty) is used to rank order the best applicants; a small number of applicants will be offered places on the basis of the FPS.
Redress on the basis of disadvantage
As our South African history has been, and in many cases continues to be, one of gross inequality usually structured along racial lines a key element of our admissions policy is to provide for redress on the basis of disadvantage. To do this we look at the school the applicant attends/attended and his/her family background. This redress policy is for South African applicants only. It yields a disadvantage
factor, expressed as a percentage between 0% and 10% (or for the MBChB, between 0% and 20%). We add this percentage of the F.PS to the FPS to derive the weighted (for redress) Faculty Point Score (WPS). In other words
If the redress factor is 7%, we calculate the WPS as follows:
WPS = FPS + (7% X FPS)
If there is a zero redress factor (no school or family disadvantage or an international applicant) then the factor is 0% and WPS = FPS +0 = FPS
Redress for diversity
We categorise all South African applicants according to the categorisation of the applicant’s parents under apartheid. This allows us to have a proxy for the applicant’s race. We use these categories to give priority in making selection decisions to ensure that we meet the diversity targets we set for each class.
Selections Methods
This means that in making offers, we Select a proportion of the class using the unweighted FPS; this we call Band A.
Select a proportion (usually a bigger proportion) of the class using the weighted score – the WPS – in which we make a signi cant allowance for school and/or family disadvantage and this we call Band B. Select the remaining members of the class in FPS rank order from diversity categories in order to constitute each class for diversity; this we call Band C.
admissions Policy
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2018 UNdergradUate ProSPeCtUS