UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN

A proposed hybrid model for ensuring redress and diversity in undergraduate admissions

A. In order to constitute the class for a particular qualification an applicant will be made an offer based on one of three different sets of criteria. 

Some offers will be based on the weighted Faculty Points score (FPS), measuring academic merit by weighting the FPS by a disadvantage factor because we believe that this is a fair measure of academic merit and because this will provide redress for disadvantage; (Band A)

Some offers will be based on the FPS (the NSC scores or equivalent for applicants writing other school-leaving examinations, measuring academic achievement, and, in some faculties a combination of NSC scores and NBT[1] scores), because these will be the best applicants as measured on this basis; (Band B)

Some offers will be based on the FPS within race-redress-defined[2] applicant pools, to ensure that we constitute the class to meet the diversity targets for the class set by the Faculty Board, Senate and Council, because we believe that it is important to meet these diversity targets.  (For some qualifications no offers will be made in this group as race-redress targets will be met by the applicants selected in Bands A and B).

For all offers, in any of the above types of offer (A - Merit as measured by weighted FPS; B - Achievement per FPS; C - Race-Redress-defined by FPS ranking) the qualification-specific minimum requirements as determined by the Faculty must have been met first.  (Such minimum requirement may include a minimum FPS and/or NBT score, minimum achievement in specific subjects e.g. Maths, or in particular NBT tests - AL, QL or Maths, or in the case of the performing and creative arts and architecture, a minimum performance in an audition or a portfolio submission.)

The proportions of the class to be constituted through the different types of offers will vary according to qualifications or stream (eg. different proportions for extended (ADP) and regular streams), to be determined each year in advance by Senate and Council, and will generally be influenced by the competitiveness of entry into the qualification, and by the distribution of marks within and across race and socio economic groups.

B.     A disadvantage score will be determined for each South African applicant.  This will be a value from 0 to 10 and will be the higher of

(a) the home disadvantage score; or

(b) the school disadvantage score.

Home disadvantage score will be made up using the following table:

The school disadvantage score will be derived

• by identifying all schools in quintiles 1 to 4;
• by identifying all schools in quintile 5 that were formerly DET (Department of Education & Training/ Bantu Education) or HOR (House of Representatives/ Coloured Relations) schools;
• by identifying all independent schools outside of the top 10% in the NSC ranking who in 2015 charged tuition fees of R30,000 or more;
• by ranking schools based on their average NSC score for all students writing the NSC at that school over a five year period (or two, three or four years where five years data are not available)

and giving a school a disadvantage score as follows:

where the values of x and y will be determined by Senate and Council after futher work by the Institutional Planning Department. (Previous versions of this scoring table  gave values for x = 6 and y = 7 Schools in the range 86 -90 include schools such as Bergvliet and Pinelands High, and  it has become clear that a vaule of 6 for x would diproportionatle advanatge schools in the 2^nd decile. The value of x could be zero, or could be a number uch smaller than 6. A proposal in this regard will be made at a later date.)

C.  For Band A - (Merit as measured by weighted FPS), the FPS will be weighted by using the applicant's disadvantage score.

It must be noted that in this band, all applicants are competing on weighted FPS and all will have a disadvantage score calculated, though many will not be disadvantaged on the above criteria, and will therefore have a score of 0. Their weighted FPS will thus equal the FPS.

D.  For Band C - Race-based-redress category: offers will be made, according to (unweighted) FPS, in race-redress category baskets, in order to ensure that the class is constituted to meet the race-diversity targets for the class agreed by the faculty board, Senate and Council, where the categories are

1: a parent was classified as Black

2: a parent was classified as Coloured

3: a parent was classified as Indian

4: a parent was classified as Chinese

under apartheid or:

Open: where the applicant chooses not to disclose this, or where both parents were white, or where the applicant is not a South African.

Footnotes:

[1] These measure readiness for first degree study.

[2] This will be defined by the answers South African applicants give to the question about race classification of their parents.

Source: The University of Cape Town

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