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