Here is how to apply online through CAO for undergraduate study in South Africa, from start to finish. You will see who CAO is for, what to have ready before you begin, what happens on each screen, how paying and uploading documents fit in, and the slip-ups that tend to slow an application down.
CAO — the Central Applications Office — takes in one application from you and sends it on to the institutions you picked. It covers the four public universities in KwaZulu-Natal: the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), Durban University of Technology (DUT), Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT) and the University of Zululand (UNIZULU), plus the participating private colleges listed in the CAO Handbook. CAO itself does not choose who gets in. Each institution decides for itself, and simply meeting a published minimum does not guarantee you a place.
Who Should Apply Through CAO
CAO is the right route if you are applying for undergraduate study for the first time at UKZN, DUT, MUT or UNIZULU, or if you are transferring into undergraduate study at one of them. If you are already registered at one of these institutions and you are staying in the same programme, look at that institution’s own instructions first. A fresh CAO application is not always what a returning student needs.
If you are applying at postgraduate level, pause and check first. The official CAO Programmes page says applicants should consult the institution for postgraduate courses that are not included on the CAO website or in the Handbook. Some postgraduate programmes do run through CAO and others are handled straight by the institution, so you cannot take it for granted that the undergraduate route covers your programme.
One quick clarification: everything here is about the South African Central Applications Office in KwaZulu-Natal. Ireland has a Central Applications Office too, but it is a separate system, with its own rules, dates and fees.
Before You Start: What to Prepare
Get your details together before you open the form. It goes much quicker that way, and you are far less likely to type something wrong. Have these ready:
- Your South African ID number — or your passport number, if you are applying from outside South Africa.
- Your personal details, with a cellphone number and email address you actually check. CAO and the institutions will reach you on those details, so a mailbox you hardly ever open will only cause trouble.
- Your school details and your latest results. In Grade 12, that usually means your final Grade 11 results plus any Grade 12 results you have so far. If you have already finished school, have your highest qualification to hand.
- Details of any tertiary study you have done before, where that applies — the institution and the qualification.
- Your programme choices, in the order you truly prefer them. Before you settle them, read the Handbook entries: each one gives the closing date, minimum points, minimum entry requirements, entry term and duration for that programme at that campus.
- A way to pay the administration fee. The official CAO Learner Guide says you can pay online or at an EasyPay outlet. You will see the exact fee for you on cao.ac.za at the payment step and in the current Handbook. No fee amount is quoted here, because no fee figure was confirmed on an official CAO page opened at the time of writing. Check the amount before you pay, and hold on to your proof of payment.
Spend real time on your ranking. Institutions can see the order you put your choices in, and some programmes favour applicants who put them first or second. Pick programmes you honestly want to study, rather than names that just fill up the list.
The CAO Application Process, Step by Step
The official CAO Learner Guide for 2027 Entry breaks the online application into six stages. Work through them in order, and do not stop halfway through the first screen and assume you are done.
Step 1: Go to cao.ac.za and click Apply
Start at the official website, cao.ac.za, and click Apply — and nowhere else. If a site asks for a different fee, or promises you a place, it is not the official CAO service.
Step 2: Enter your ID or passport number
Type in your South African ID number, or your passport number if you are an international applicant, then click Submit. Read every digit twice before you move on. A slip here can cause real headaches later, when CAO or an institution tries to link your results and documents to your application.
Step 3: Complete your details
Work through every screen, filling in all the required information and clicking Next as you go. That covers your personal details, contact details, school history and programme choices. Read each question properly before you answer. One of the most common errors is hurrying the school section and putting down the wrong examination type or the wrong year.
Type your results in exactly as they appear on your report or certificate — no rounding, no guessing. If you are in Grade 12, the official guidance for applicants says your Life Orientation result is compulsory in the upload and results section. If a result is not out yet, do what the on-screen instruction for that field says, rather than inventing a mark.
Step 4: Submit with Process My Application
When the form is complete, click Process My Application. That click is what submits it. Just creating a profile or working through the screens does not count as submitting. If you close the browser before you process the application, it may never have gone in at all. Wait for the confirmation screen, and write down your CAO number and any password or reference details it shows. Keep those details private, somewhere safe.
Step 5: Pay the administration fee
Pay the full administration fee, either online or at an EasyPay outlet such as Shoprite, Checkers or Pick n Pay. Online, use the Payments option on the CAO website and follow the prompts. At EasyPay, use the unique EasyPay number on your application as the reference. The Learner Guide says your application will be processed once payment is confirmed.
Be careful with anyone who offers to apply for you for an extra charge. Unless you have checked exactly what that service is, do not pay CAO through a third party. The safest way is to pay yourself, through cao.ac.za or an EasyPay outlet, using your own CAO or EasyPay reference.
Step 6: Upload your documents
Once your application is in, upload the documents it asks for. From the CAO homepage, click Upload My Documents, log in as instructed, and follow the on-screen steps to upload and submit each one. Documents go up on the CAO website itself. Posting hard copies or emailing documents is not the route the official guide describes, so do not count on either to finish your application.
Three things all have to be in place before your application is valid for processing: the form submitted, the fee paid, and the required documents uploaded. If even one is missing, your application may not reach institutions for selection in the normal way. Check each one on its own, instead of assuming the submitted form alone did the job.
Status Check Versus Applicant Login: Do Not Merge Them
CAO gives you two different ways to look up an application, and they get mixed up all the time.
The first is Check My Application, the status checker on the CAO homepage. It needs just one identifier — your CAO number, your South African ID number, or your passport number — and no password. Type in that one identifier and you can follow how your application is progressing.
The second is the applicant login, used for Upload My Documents and for updating your details. That one needs your CAO number or ID or passport number plus a password. So here is a quick test: a page asking for a password is the login flow, not the simple status checker, and a page asking only for a CAO, ID or passport number is the status checker. Once you have that straight, you will stop locking yourself out by trying the wrong one.
Do I Need NSFAS to Apply Through CAO?
No. Applying through CAO and applying for NSFAS funding are two separate jobs. CAO deals with university applications. NSFAS deals with student funding. You can put in a CAO application without having applied to NSFAS, and an NSFAS application on its own does not put in a CAO application for you.
That split cuts both ways. If you need funding, you still have to apply for it through the NSFAS route, on top of your CAO application. If you do not need NSFAS funding, nothing about that blocks your CAO application. So do not hold off your CAO application while you wait on a funding decision, and do not read a CAO offer as proof that funding has been approved.
Duplicate Applications: What to Avoid
Do not send in a second application for the same entry year and term just to boost your chances. Two applications only muddy the picture — which application counts, which ranking stands, which documents belong where. If you want different programme choices after submitting, use the Change of Mind facility described on cao.ac.za instead of starting over.
If the system stops you because it says you already have an application, or you think you submitted twice by mistake, call the CAO Call Centre on 031 268 4444 and explain exactly what happened. Do not try to dodge the block by opening a second profile under different details. That only makes it harder to match your ID, results and documents.
After You Submit: What Happens Next
Once submission, payment and upload are all done, CAO passes your application to the institutions you chose. Each one weighs it against its own selection criteria and the places it has open. You can keep an eye on progress through Check My Application on cao.ac.za, using your CAO number, ID number or passport number.
If an institution wants more from you, your status may ask for another document — an academic record, say, or an evaluation of a foreign qualification. Send it promptly, through the official upload route. And if you get an offer, follow that institution’s acceptance and registration instructions by the date in the offer. An offer from one institution does not register you on its own, and it does not keep a place open for ever.
Waiting for a Decision means exactly what it says: the institution has not decided yet. It is not a rejection. Conditional Offer and Firm Offer come with conditions and acceptance steps of their own, so read those carefully. You will find all of these status terms explained in the status meanings guide on this site.
