Have you passed matric but not heard back from a university? This portal might be able to help

The department of higher education is calling on grade 12 pupils who passed matric in 2021 but have not received offers to study at institutions of higher learning to apply via its Central Applications Clearing House (CACH) online portal. 

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The system will send information provided by applicants to institutions to which they applied and communicate feedback regarding the availability of their study programmes. 

“The CACH facility will send a prospective student’s information to universities, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges and the sector education and training authorities (SETAs) for learnerships. Where places exist and you meet the requirements, institutions will contact you to offer you a place,” said the department.

The system will bridge the gap between applicants and institutions, as they don't allow walk-in applications. 

HOW FIERCE IS COMPETITION FOR PLACES?

Sunday Times Daily reported on hundreds of thousands of matriculants competing for a limited number of available spaces.

Universities received more than 1-million applications from 2021 matriculants, with teaching, law and medicine among the sought-after fields. 

Thandi Lewin, acting deputy director-general for university education at the department of higher education & training, told TimesLIVE universities will accept just more than 200,000 first year applicants in 2022.

“We anticipate approximately 208,000 places for first-time entering students. Those may be students who wrote their National Senior Certificate exams in 2021, but it may also be they are students who may have taken a break after school or repeated matric exams and have come into the system. There is a lot of competition for space,” she said. 

The matric class of 2021 achieved a 76.4% pass rate, up from 76.2% the year before.

More than 800,000 pupils wrote their matric exams in November in 67 subjects. More than 13,000 wrote their exams at Independent Examinations Board schools in 65 subjects. 

The IEB pass rate was 98.39%, slightly higher than the 98.06% achieved in 2020.