Matrics of 2018 have their sights set on careers in medicine, engineering, education, pharmacy, accounting, law and social work. As tertiary institutions prepare to open their doors for the new academic year, they have been inundated with applications from first-year students for courses across the spectrum.
Among the more popular choices, most universities have noted, are medicine, accounting, engineering, law, pharmacy and social work.
The University of Cape Town (UCT) has received 6,000 applications for medicine, 10,000 for BCom (the chartered accountancy option), 11,000 for BA/bachelor of social science, 13,700 for engineering, 8,700 for bachelor of law and 8,200 for bachelor of science.
"The university received 62,740 undergraduate applications to study in 2019 from approximately 32,000 applicants. UCT can accommodate around 4,200 first-year undergraduate students across six faculties," said spokesperson Aamirah Sonday.
At the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), social work appeared to be the favoured choice with 15,804 applications, followed by nursing at 14,668 and law at 11,953.
The school of education received 11,418 applications for 800 first-year places, while pharmacy got 10,851 applicants and medicine 6,200 for 240 first-year spots.
UKZN spokesperson Normah Zondo said about 91,000 undergraduate applications were received for about 8,770 first-year places.
Wits University had 70,349 first-year applications, for just over 5,000 spaces this year.
Faculties like health sciences, humanities and sciences received the highest numbers of applications.
Its top five programmes include bachelor of science general, bachelor of medicine, bachelor of surgery, bachelor of pharmacy, BA and bachelor of law.
University of Pretoria spokesperson Rikus Delport said it would accommodate about 9,600 first-years. The university received 37,464 applications.
"All professional programmes offered in the various faculties remain popular, such as health, education, law, business, humanities and veterinary science."
Delport said as more school leavers qualify to study at tertiary institutions "so will the applications at universities increase. The focus should be on finding the right tertiary programme to match students' skills and school education/training."
The University of the Western Cape's spokesperson, Gasant Abarder, said a collective 48,000 applications had been received for popular courses like dentistry, pharmacy, law, education, arts and accounting.
"There are 4,300 spaces across all programmes," he said...