CAO Application Requirements are the conditions to meet, and the information to supply, before CAO can send your application to an institution for selection. What follows covers the general requirements, how things stand for Grade 12 learners and mature applicants, how APS points work, and why you need to check UKZN, DUT, MUT and UNIZULU requirements programme by programme instead of trusting a single list.
Here is the point to hold on to above all others: no one CAO requirement unlocks every programme. CAO processes applications, while each institution sets its own programme requirements and picks its own students. Clearing a published minimum gets you considered, not admitted.
The General Requirements for a CAO Application
To get a CAO application in, you need to identify yourself, lay out your school and study history, pick your programmes, pay the administration fee shown on cao.ac.za, and upload the documents asked for. CAO's Learner Guide walks through the online route: go to cao.ac.za, click Apply, enter your South African ID number or passport number, complete your details, click Process My Application, pay online or at an EasyPay outlet, and then upload documents through Upload My Documents.
Past the form itself, every programme you pick carries its own entry requirements. You will find them in that programme's entry in the CAO Handbook and on the CAO programme list. A typical entry shows the programme name, programme code, closing date, minimum points, minimum entry requirements, entry term, course duration and any notes, like an interview, audition, portfolio or assessment test. Read the whole entry for your exact programme and campus, because the same programme name at another campus can carry different requirements.
CAO Application for Grade 12 Learners
If you are in Grade 12 right now, you apply with the results you already have, and your application is looked at in stages as new results come in. Start by having your final Grade 11 results ready, along with any Grade 12 June or trial results you have received. Copy results exactly as they appear on your reports, and never guess a mark that has not been issued.
One more detail for Grade 12 applicants: the instructions for the upload and results section treat your Life Orientation result as compulsory. So if a field has no result yet, follow the on-screen instruction for that field instead of inventing a mark.
Your final matric results will be taken into account once they are available. That is why Awaiting Results is among the CAO status terms: it means a decision is waiting for results that have not yet been supplied or received. Waiting for results is a very different thing from an unsuccessful application. Keep your contact details fresh so CAO or an institution can get hold of you when results or offers are ready.
Points alone are not the whole story for Grade 12 learners either. Look at subject requirements as well. A programme might demand a particular level in English, Mathematics, Mathematical Literacy, Physical Sciences, Life Sciences or another subject, on top of an overall points total. A high overall total will not make up for a required subject level you do not have, if the programme entry insists on it.
If You Have Already Completed School
If you have already finished Grade 12, your highest qualification is the academic document that matters most. Have your matric certificate or statement of results at hand, plus details of any tertiary study you started or completed. With previous tertiary study, an academic record may be requested, and your CAO status may show Please Supply Academic Record until you supply it through the official upload route.
CAO Mature Age Application
A mature applicant applies on the strength of age and experience, not only on recent school results. Which route you take depends on the institution and programme, and it is far from the same everywhere. Some programmes ask for a mature age exemption or evaluation, and Handbook entries for the programmes concerned refer to a USAf (Universities South Africa) mature age exemption.
You will not find one mature age threshold stated here, because none was confirmed on an official CAO page at the time of writing, and thresholds and document requirements vary by institution and programme. If you are applying as a mature applicant, read the programme entry in the current Handbook, read the institution's own guidance for mature applicants, and speak to CAO on 031 268 4444 or to the institution directly before you submit, so the exemption or evaluation document you send in first time is the correct one. And do not take it for granted that work experience on its own stands in for a required school subject level on a particular programme.
APS Requirements: How Points Work
APS, short for Admission Point Score, is the points total worked out from your school results. CAO's Programmes page describes the idea in straightforward language: minimum points are the lowest number of points you can attain to apply for a programme, and the points needed can change with the school leaving examination you wrote. Your own total comes from your latest examination results, worked out the way the Handbook explains.
Why does that description matter? For three reasons. To begin with, minimum points are the floor for applying, not a promise of a place. Where places are limited, applicants are ranked, and the successful ones may hold points well above the published minimum. Next, points are only part of the picture. Subject levels and programme-specific requirements, like an interview or a portfolio, can count just as much as the total. And lastly, one programme can set a different minimum points figure for different examination types.
That is why you will not find a single APS table for UKZN, DUT, MUT and UNIZULU here, or any programme-specific APS figure quoted. No programme-specific APS table was verified on an official CAO page at the time of writing, and lifting a table from a third-party site could hand you a figure that is out of date or wrong for your campus. For your own case, open your programme entry in the current Handbook, jot down the minimum points and the subject levels for your examination type, and work out your points from your latest results using the Handbook method. If you sit close to the minimum, apply with care, rank your choices honestly, and make sure one of them is a programme with a lower points requirement that you would genuinely be happy to take, not a throwaway pick.
University Requirements: UKZN, DUT, MUT and UNIZULU
All four public CAO universities take first-time undergraduate applications through CAO, but do not expect their programme requirements to match. Each university sets its requirements faculty by faculty and programme by programme. An engineering programme, a health sciences programme, an education programme and a humanities programme at the same university can ask for very different subjects and points, and close on different dates.
Competitive programmes, including health sciences, also tend to close earlier to leave room for interviews and assessment tests. On late applications, CAO's Programmes page is blunt: anything received after a closing date is processed as late, institutions treat late applications differently from one another, and UKZN Health Science programmes simply do not consider applications received after the closing date. Always check the closing date in the programme entry before you bank on a late application being possible.
Private colleges in the CAO system set their own requirements too. In the Handbook they appear under the orange heading, while universities and universities of technology appear under the blue heading. A university requirement does not carry over to a private college programme, and the reverse is equally true.
Checking Your Own Requirements: A Short Checklist
- Look up your exact programme and campus in the current Handbook or programme list.
- Write down the closing date, minimum points, subject levels, entry term, duration, and any note about an interview, audition, portfolio or test.
- Work out your points from your latest results using the Handbook method for your examination type.
- Check that you meet each required subject level, not just the overall points total.
- Find out if your applicant type needs one more document — for example an academic record, a mature age exemption, or a foreign qualification evaluation.
- Check the administration fee and payment route on cao.ac.za, and send your documents through the official route only.
- Keep your contact details up to date, so offers and document requests can still reach you.
