University Rush: Don’t Get Left in the Queue

South Africa’s National Senior Certificate (NSC) gets a lot of criticism. But it also has a practical advantage that matters enormously right now, when applying to university you do not need additional documents such as a USaF exemption, that many doing alternative school leaving qualifications, will need.

This matters in the rush to register that will be taking place this week.

The national, headline results are announced today, Monday 12 January 2026, and individual results are released tomorrow, Tuesday 13 January 2026. Because universities only get full access to NSC results shortly before the public release, the system now moves in a tight sequence: results → firm offers → acceptances → registration → programmes filling up.

The government projects about 235,000 first-year university spaces for 2026.  NSFAS alone recorded 766,232 first-time entry funding applications for 2026. There are not enough first-year university seats for everyone who wants one.

Oversubscribed

Across the country’s most popular universities the number of students looking for places outnumbers the available places by factors of 10 to 20 and sometimes 40.

At Wits, there are 116,000 undergraduate applications for 2026 and capacity for 6,000 first-year students, roughly 19 applications for every 1 seat. The University of Johannesburg has the largest number of applicants with 410,944 individuals applying while they will be enrolling only about 10,500 first-years, about 39 individual applicants per seat. UP (University of Pretoria) received 94,153 applications and typically registers around 9,000 new first-years, about 10 applications per seat.

The situation in the rest of the country is the same.  Stellenbosch University reported 268,532 applications from 106,468 undergraduate applicants, with capacity for about 6,074 first-years, about 44 applications per seat.  And it’s not only the ‘big names’: the University of Venda received 150,923 applications for 3,720 first-year places — about 41 applications per seat.

An Overbooked Educational Flight

A common misunderstanding is that universities make offers equal to the number of seats. They don’t. Just like airlines looking to fill a flight they over-offer because many applicants decline, fail to meet final conditions, or don’t register in time. Don’t think they will wait for the best candidates with the highest marks. Those who meet the basic requirements and accept the offers are likely to be registered first.

UCT’s admissions spokesperson explained an over-offer ratio of about 3:1, meaning around 12,000 offers may be made (across categories) to yield about 4,000 enrolled first-time entering undergraduates.

Wits makes the same underlying point from the other side: offers have limited acceptance windows, and if applicants don’t accept in time, offers can be withdrawn and reissued as faculties work through waitlists.  Stellenbosch similarly warns that final offers will be made from 14 January 2026, and that applicants may have only a two-day window to accept. 

This is why programmes can fill within days.

Non-NSC applicants need to act now

While non-NSC applicants often have quality advantage in academic terms any delay, missing document, or pending verification can become fatal when offices are handling thousands of files.

Non-NSC applicants (Cambridge, American High School Diploma, and other international qualifications) should have a long-term plan to ensure they have everything in place before the registration rush.

Places disappear quickly

The queues move fast: once offers start rolling, universities will fill places within days, prioritising applicants who meet the requirements and complete the acceptance and registration steps on time. Non-NSC applicants therefore need to act now, even a small administrative delay (a missing document, a pending verification, or an exemption still in progress) can cost a place during the rush to register. 

Good luck for the week ahead and may everything go smoothly. For the future, it is never too early to start planning (even years ahead) your child's non-NSC pathway so they are ready long before the next registration rush arrives.