Below are tables of the admission requirements, by race, for probable admission to the various undergraduate courses at the University of Cape Town in the 2012 academic year. These criteria will apply to students who matriculate in 2011 and who generally would have entered Grade 1 in 2000.
South African applicants for positions are required to identify themselves by one of five racial categories: Black, Coloured, Indian, Chinese and White. The university sets overall enrolment targets and racial targets for each programme. According to the university's Admission Policy for 2012 "All faculties will aim to admit specified minimum numbers of eligible South African Black, Chinese, Coloured and Indian students in accordance with these targets."
The University justifies the use of race in admissions on the basis of "diversity" and "redress." The goal, in terms of "diversity", it states, is to ensure that the local component of the student body "increasingly reflects the demographic diversity of the South African population" This suggests that the ultimate intention is for the racial proportions of the student body to reflect those of the population as a whole: i.e. 79% black, 9% Coloured, 9,5% white and 2,6% Indian and Asian (2007 Community Survey).
The University claims that its policy is also "designed for redress. The law requires this. The legacy of decades of inequality, and in particular structural educational inequality, in South Africa and the continuing (and in many cases increasing) disparities in public education provision is a reality with which our admissions policy must deal."
In terms of the policy white applicants fall under the "open" category and black, Coloured, Indian and Chinese applicants under the "redress" one. The latter can apply for direct entry into the normal degree courses or, in many cases, to an extended degree programme where academic support is provided and where admission requirements are lower.
As evidenced by the tables below there are, particularly for the higher status courses, wide differentials between the marks required for the different racial groups. In engineering, medicine and, to a lesser extent, law, white applicants have to attain considerably higher marks than their black contemporaries for probable admission.