Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences & Law
Faculty Programmes
All programmes are offered at the NMD Site of Mthatha Campus.
For all Bachelor’s Degree programmes, only applicants whose National Senior Certificate (NSC) results indicate that the learner has met the requirements for admission into Bachelor’s Degree, that is, Bachelors’ endorsement, may be admitted.
In the case of the old Senior Certificate, only applicants with a Matriculation Exemption endorsement will be considered for admission.
Admission Point System (APS)
- The Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law endeavours to use a point system for admissions.
- The achievement levels are then translated into points for each NSC subject. Points will be used to calculate the total Admission Point Score (APS).
- The minimum APS required for a Bachelor’s degree is 26.
- For the Extended Programme in Social Sciences, the minimum APS requirement is 26 and the maximum is 29.
- Mainstream Programme in Social Sciences the minimum APS is 30.
- For the Bachelor of Laws, the APS is 34.
- The Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law Admissions Committee considered the administration of admission point score as proposed by Universities South Africa (Usaf).
- The Committee appreciates the breakdown made in the achievement levels as this advantages a student whose performance is better than others.
On the basis of the Usaf proposal, the points will be awarded as in the following example:
NSC % per Subject |
Points |
91% |
9.1 |
86% |
8.6 |
82% |
8.2 |
79% |
7.9 |
64% |
6.4 |
55% |
5.5 |
43% |
4.3 |
39% |
3.9 |
31% |
3.1 |
30% |
3.0 |
29% |
2.9 |
28% |
2.8 |
27% |
2.7 |
26% |
2.6 |
25% |
2.5 |
The purpose of the above split will assist departments in admitting students according to their performance as opposed to the previous point system where a learner who scores 70% and the one who scores 79% would both attain7 points.
It should be noted that the above scoring system excludes Life Orientation and Mathematical Literacy.
Points for these two are allocated as follows:
NSC % per Subject |
Points |
90 - 100% |
5 |
80 - 89% |
4 |
70 - 79% |
3 |
60 - 69% |
2 |
50 - 59% |
1 |
40 - 49% |
0 |
30 - 39% |
0 |
0 - 29% |
0 |
ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS PER PROGRAMME FOR 2021
Programme |
Minimum requirement |
Minimum requirement | |
Bachelor of Arts |
Senior Certificate with Matriculation Exemption. At least two subjects in Humanities or teaching subjects, with at least two subjects with E (HG) and two subjects with D (SG) and a pass in any other two school subjects. |
Bachelor's endorsement with NSC: Achievement rating of at least 4 (50 – 59%) for any four NSC Subjects, at least 2 of which are in the Humanities or are teaching subjects. If English is taken as a major, it should be at least at level 5 (60-69). |
|
Bachelor of Social Science |
Exemption and mature age exemption for applicants in possession of the senior certificate (old matriculation). |
Bachelor's endorsement with NSC achievement rating of at least 4 (50 – 59%) for any four NSC Subjects. If English is taken as a major, it should at least be at level 5. NSC rating of at least 3 (40 – 49%) for English (if not to be taken as a Major), which is the language of learning and teaching at WSU and a pass in any other school subject. |
|
Bachelor of Laws |
Senior Certificate with at least E (HG) and D (SG) in school subjects. |
See under admission requirements under Bachelor of Laws. |
The following is also acceptable:
- Mature age exemption for the applicant in possession of the Senior Certificate (old matriculation) as per Rule 1.7 of the WSU General Rule and Regulations.
Programmes offered | Abbreviation | Duration |
Arts | ||
Master of Arts | MA | 1 year |
Bachelor of Arts (Hons) | BA (Hons) | 1 year |
Bachelor of Arts | BA | 3 years |
Legal Studies |
||
Master of Laws | LLM | 1 year |
Bachelor of Laws | LLB | 4 years |
Social Sciences | ||
Postgraduate Diploma: Library & Information Science | PGDLIS | 1 year |
Bachelor of Social Science (Hons) | BSocSc (Hons)/BPsych | 3 years |
Bachelor of Social Science | BSocSc/PGDLIS | 1 year |
Bachelor of Social Sciences (Extended) | BSocSc | 4 years |
Social Work & Psychology | ||
Bachelor of Social Work | BSW | 4 years |
Bachelor of Psychology | BPsych | 4 years |
Master of Social Work | MSW | 1 year |