Higher Education Act, 1997 (Act No. 101 of 1997)

The subjects listed in the appendix to this document are recognised National Senior Certificate subjects for the purpose of this policy. All recognised subjects have a credit value of 20, except Life Orientation (10).

The common basis of admission to a Higher Certificate, Diploma or Bachelor’s Degree is the achievement of a National Senior Certificate according to the rules of subject combination prescribed in the policy for the National Senior Certificate – A qualification at level 4 on the National Qualifications Framework, Government Gazette, Vol. 481, No. 27819, July 2005.

Qualifications in higher education are designed to have high social and economic value to the country. They also represent significant learning achievement, but all qualifications are not alike. They make different intellectual demands and reflect different intellectual achievements on an increasing scale of difficulty, and this is reflected in the different requirements for admission to the Higher Certificate, the Diploma and the Bachelor’s Degree, in terms of the National Senior Certificate.

The minimum admission requirements for the Bachelor’s Degree are therefore particularly distinctive. They balance a number of important considerations. The bar must be set high enough to fairly reflect the cognitive demands that will be made on degree students but not to undermine the important objectives of equity and wider access. Higher education institutions admit applicants who are likely to succeed in degree studies, given good teaching, good facilities and appropriate academic and other support, so the admission requirements must as far as possible predict student success in the programmes for which they are enrolled. In turn this means that the National Senior Certificate curriculum followed by aspiring degree candidates must equip them to meet the demands of degree studies.

The National Senior Certificate has to cater for the minority who aspire to degree study as well as those who will enter vocational higher or further education programmes or the world of work. Some subjects are designed to serve all those purposes and some are designed especially for learners who aspire to enter vocational preparation or employment.

For these reasons learners who aspire to degree study will be expected to perform satisfactorily in at least four subjects chosen from a designated list of recognized National Senior Certificate subjects. The list comprises NSC subjects that, when chosen as part of a complete National Senior Certificate programme, are expected to prepare learners well for the demands of first time degree studies.

The designated list will remain in place for three years from the commencement of the policy, during which time Umalusi and the Higher Education Quality Committee of the Council on Higher Education, working together with the Department of Education and higher education institutions, will be requested to undertake an evaluation of its suitability and influence. The matter will then be reviewed in the light of the evidence.

All recognised NSC subjects, whether they are on the designated list or not, have value in their own right. Many different combinations of designated and other recognised NSC subjects will suit candidates for the varieties of Higher Certificate, Diploma and Bachelor’s Degree programmes. A heavy onus will rest on the higher education community to decide what those subject combinations are in respect of particular programmes and make them widely known so that provincial departments of education, parents, school principals and career guidance teachers are in a position to give the best possible advice to learners who aspire to enter higher education.