A large number of students seeking admission to South African universities this year appear to be bent on becoming teachers, figures show.
A snap survey by the Sunday Times this week showed that the bachelor of education (BEd) degree was the top choice for first-time students at 12 of 20 universities. The country has 26 such institutions.
Together, the 12 institutions reported that the four-year BEd degree was their applicants' most popular choice, receiving 488,751 applications.
Of those institutions, the University of Johannesburg (UJ) received 87,720 BEd applications, the University of the Free State (UFS) 80,342, the Central University of Technology (CUT) 53,890 and Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) 48,953.
A nursing degree was also popular, coming in second or third among applicants at six universities, while law was one of the top three options at five universities.
Overall, the 20 institutions received more than 4,1-million applications for almost 163,000 places across all disciplines.
Walter Sisulu University (WSU) in the Eastern Cape received the highest number of applications (508,236) of all the contact universities, followed by CPUT (360,682) and UJ (320,000).
While some institutions indicated they had contingency plans to deal with the late release of the matric results this week, others said it gave them little time to process final offers for students and for them to accept these.
Basic education minister Angie Motshekga will announce the matric results on Thursday. This will be followed by their release to pupils on Friday.
Professor Loyiso Jita, dean of the education faculty at UFS, said the BEd degree “has a much stronger value proposition than many comparable qualifications”.
“The programme is diversified enough to attract students with different interests, such as the natural and physical sciences, languages, mathematics, commerce and social sciences.”
Jita said most BEd graduates were likely to land a job within the first four months of graduation, “with a relatively decent salary package and attractive conditions of service”.
“The social value of the qualification makes it attractive to the younger generation who wish to make an immediate impact in society in ways other than being a politician or a social media influencer,” he said.
UFS received 80,342 applications for the BEd for 1,400 places.
“Clearly there are way too few spaces relative to the number of applicants. As such, we have an opportunity to select the best candidates for the teaching profession,” Jita said.
“In future, it might be possible to think of interviewing all prospective candidates in addition to looking at their performance, as they do in countries like Singapore.”
Professor Labby Ramrathan, from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), said there were only 1,277 places available at the university for first-entry students wanting to pursue teaching.
He said the huge number of applications could be attributed to the availability of bursaries and the possibilities of teaching abroad.
Meanwhile, WSU spokesperson Yonela Tukwayo attributed its large number of applications across academic programmes to an intense marketing drive and school visit schedule to encourage students to apply rather than arrive as “walk-in” applicants during registration.
“Since we stopped taking walk-ins, we have seen major growth in early applications,” Tukwayo said.
Durban University of Technology (DUT) spokesperson Noxolo Memela said that while the enrolment target for the diploma in hospitality management was 100, they received 11,834 applications.
DUT received 11,100 applications for 54 places for the BEd degree specialising in the senior phase and languages in grades 10 to 12.
Tlangelani Ubisi, spokesperson for the University of Mpumalanga (UMP), said the institution received 66,800 more applications than last year.
“We attribute the increase in applications to the growth of our brand as a comprehensive university,” Ubisi said.
Azwi Mufamadi, from the Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT), said it had an agreement with the basic education department to access results before they were released.
Stellenbosch University’s (SU) director of communication, Tertia Kruger, said the medicine and health sciences faculty received 39,600 applications, its highest number.
“The university values its students and wants each one to have a transformative experience, which starts when prospective students have their first contact with SU and continues until they graduate and become alumni.”
The social value of the qualification makes it attractive to the younger generation who wish to make an immediate impact in society in ways other than being a politician or a social media influencer
— Professor Loyiso Jita, dean of the education faculty at UFS
She said the academic integrity of the institution, quality of qualifications and research, and practical and proper administrative governance were non-negotiable.
University of Cape Town spokesperson Thami Nkwanyane said that engineering was the most popular course at the university, with 17,876 applications received, followed by medicine with 12,012.
Vaal University of Technology (VUT) spokesperson Tandi Mapukata said the institution would open for late applications, but only for specific qualifications in engineering, applied and computer science, and human science.
University of Pretoria (UP) spokesperson Rikus Delport said the late release of matric results “adds to the pressure on an institution to process applications in shorter time frames”, with UFS spokesperson Lacea Loader saying it would result in a slightly delayed admissions process.
“This has a cascading effect on registration and commencement of classes as both will start slightly late and end later this year than in 2022,” Loader said.
The university was excited about 2023 “as most, if not all, of our academic activities will be returning to the pre-Covid-19 learning and teaching mode”, she added.
UKZN’s Normah Zondo said the university had engaged in a fundraising programme to provide bursary assistance to financially needy, unfunded students to help them to register for 2023.
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