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2014 No Show Survey Draft Report
July 2014
Table of Contents
1 Introduction 2
2 Context 2
2.1 UCT Applicants, Offers and No Shows 2
2.2 Representivity 3
3 Results 3
3.1 What is your current main activity: all respondents 4
3.2 Current Main Activity, Demographic Profile: all respondents 4
3.3 Studying Elsewhere Institution 5
3.4 Reasons for not coming to UCT 6
3.4.1 Reasons for not coming to UCT: Financial 6
3.5 What could UCT have done to secure your registration in 2014? 7
3.6 Please tell us in your own words why you didn’t register at UCT. 8
3.7 Summary 10
1 Introduction
The Institutional Planning Department No Show survey was conducted amongst the 2014 group of successful new undergraduate applicants who failed to take up their academic offers at UCT.
The purpose of this survey is to investigate the following: current activities of these applicants, their main reasons for not registering at UCT and what UCT could have done to secure their ultimate registration. This report will discuss the findings of the 2014 No Show Survey.
2 Context
2.1 UCT Applicants, Offers and No Shows
UCT received 26547 new undergraduate (FU and TU) applications for the 2014 academic year, with the majority (77%) being non Cape Town applicants.
UCT made 9101 FU and TU offers in total, with the majority, 73% going to non Cape Town applicants.
Just under half (4274 or 47%) of successful applicants, chose not to register at UCT, again the majority (84%) being non Capetonian.
Table 1a: Demographic Profile of No Shows
As seen in Table 1, the racial breakdown of the 2014 “no show” students, was 29% South African Africans, 28% white, with slightly smaller proportions of Indians and coloureds (17% and 12% respectively). International students represented 10% of the” no shows”.
Table 1b: Gender Profile of No Shows
Of the 4274 “no shows” 8% were eligible for financial aid.
2.2 Representivity
A survey on the 2014 UCT “no shows” was conducted in April 2014 using a web survey tool.
Using email addresses, the questionnaire was sent to 4274 “no shows”, 691 from Cape Town, with 3583 not from Cape Town.
There were 1386 (32%) responses, 264 from Cape Town and 1122 from non Capetonians.
Table 2a: Demographic Profile of No Show Survey Respondents
The comparison between Table 1a and 2a shows that the survey respondents are reasonably representative of the total “no show” survey population. There is a slight over representation of SA Africans and white respondents, and an under representation of coloured and Indian respondents. There is a slight over representation of Capetonian respondents (19% v 16%),
Table 2b: Gender Profile of No Show Survey Respondents
Comparison of the two gender tables (1b and 2b) indicates an almost equal ratio of representation of genders within the pool of respondents.
3 Results
This section presents and discusses the survey responses, with a brief overall view of the main activities and reasons for not registering at UCT and a more in depth analysis of financial issues raised. The responses are grouped according to three main categories of interest - Cape Town and Non Cape Town based, demographics and financial constraints. It should also be noted that in certain questions which catered for multiple choice answers, the sum of responses will exceed the total number of respondents.
3.1 What is your current main activity: all respondents
Table 3: What is your current Main Activity
The majority of respondents indicated that they were studying elsewhere (72% of the Cape Town respondents and 84% of Non Cape Town respondents) with a further 14% of Capetonians taking a gap year. Comments from the “Other category” included, rewriting certain matric subjects, enrolling in a post matric year at different institutions, seeking sponsorship or engaged in voluntary work.
3.2 Current Main Activity, Demographic Profile: all respondents
Table 4: Current Main Activity, Demographic Profile of No Show Survey Respondents
No substantial differences in the majority of responses regarding current main activity were noted when comparing South African population groups, with the exception of a higher percentage (51 or 12%) of South African white students choosing to take a gap year. Although the International pool of students was small (132), less than half (47%) indicated they were studying elsewhere and 27 (or 20%) opted to take a gap year.
3.3 Studying Elsewhere Institution
Table 5: Studying Elsewhere Top 8 Institutions: all respondents
Note: Only Top 8 institutions are listed in the table, total no. of respondents overall equals 1386.
Table 5 indicates the top eight institutions chosen by the “no show” respondents studying elsewhere for the 2014 academic year (82%). The most popular institution overall was the University of Stellenbosch (23%) with 38% of the Cape Town based students and 19% of the non Cape Town based students enrolling there. For Capetonians, the second highest number of enrolments was at the University of the Western Cape (42 or 16%). The majority of the Non Cape Town respondents (23%) registered at the University of the Witswatersrand, with 15% choosing the University of Pretoria.
Table 5a: Studying Elsewhere Top 8 Institutions Demographic Profile
Note: Only Top 8 institutions are listed in the table, total no. of respondents overall equals 1386.
The pattern amongst the South African population groups showed that a third (33%) of African respondents enrolled at the University of the Witswatersrand with 13% registering at the University of Pretoria, while the majority of coloured respondents (40%) and white respondents (37%) chose the University of Stellenbosch. The two most popular institutions for Indian respondents were the University of the Witswatersrand and UKZN (28% and 24% respectively)
3.4 Reasons for not coming to UCT
Table 6: Reasons for not coming to UCT: All Respondents (multiple choice answers)
Note: Percentages are shown as a proportion of total respondents (1386)
In table 6, the main reasons given by the Cape Town based “no show” respondents for not registering at UCT were “Not getting into preferred faculty or degree (programme)” (36%), “Financial Constraints” (30%) and “Receiving UCT’s offer too late” (21%). Amongst the Non-Cape Town based respondents, the percentages indicating “Financial Constraints” and “Not getting into preferred faculty or degree (programme)” were equal: 30% in each case. Further responses from this group included “Receiving UCT’s offer too late” (24%), “Not being offered a residence place” (23%) and “Wishing to study closer to home” (15%).
Thirty one of the “no show” respondents who gave an “other” reason for not coming to UCT, decided to take a gap year, 26 received a bursary or scholarship from other institutions, 11 were offered good employment opportunities and smaller numbers gave reasons such as distance from home and personal circumstances.
3.4.1 Reasons for not coming to UCT: Financial
Table 7: Financial reasons for not registering at UCT
Note: Percentages are shown as a proportion of total respondents citing financial constraints (442)
In table 7, of the 442 respondents who cited financial constraints as the reason for not enrolling at UCT in 2014, 141 (or 32%) had applied for Financial Aid, 30 being local students and 111 non Capetonians, but only 10% overall received a financial aid offer. Almost half (47%) of the respondents considered UCT’s tuition fees as too expensive with a third citing the residence fees as too expensive. The latter applied mainly to non local applicants (136 or 38%) compared to Capetonians (12 or 15%). Of the (151 or 34%) who decided it would be too expensive to study away from home, the largest group (148 or 41%) were non Cape Town based.
Table 8: Financial reasons for not registering at UCT Demographics
Table 8 examines by demographics the responses of the 442 “no show” applicants who cited financial reasons as a basis for not enrolling at UCT. More than half (56% or 38) of coloured respondents indicated that UCT tuition fees were too expensive, followed by 46% of South African Africans, 42% of Indian and 40% of white respondents.
South African Africans and coloured applicants were the two largest groups to apply for financial aid (40% and 41% respectively) and of the 43 offers made, the highest percentage (14% or 27) went to South African Africans.
Just over half of Indians (55%) decided it would be too expensive to study away from home, as did more than a third of white and South African African respondents (38% and 35% respectively).
44% (24) and 41% (28) of Indian and coloured respondents respectively indicated they had received a more attractive financial offer from another institution, followed by 27% (17) and 23% (46) of white and South African Africans respectively.
3.5 What could UCT have done to secure your registration in 2014?
This section will explore what the survey respondents felt UCT could have done to secure their registration in 2014:
Table 9: What could UCT have done, All Respondents
Note: Percentages are shown as a proportion of total respondents (1386)
A substantial proportion of respondents (30% or 79 Cape Town based and 30% or 332 Non-Cape Town based) regarded an earlier academic offer would encourage enrolment at UCT. Of further importance for both groups (30% of the Cape Town respondents and 28% of Non-Cape Town respondents) was being offered a place in their first choice degree. The offer of financial aid influenced 26% of Capetonians versus 19% of Non Capetonians, the latter being more interested in the offer of an Entrance Scholarship (24%, compared to 21% of Capetonians). As expected, more applicants not based in Cape Town (24%) indicated the importance of a place in residence compared to 11% of Capetonians.
3.6 Please tell us in your own words why you didn’t register at UCT.
1221 or 88% of respondents responded to the question “Please tell us in your own words why you didn’t register at UCT”. Whilst some answers gave a single reason for non registration, most noted multiple causes for not accepting UCT’s offer.
Although the responses often only formed part of the reason for non registration, 302 (50 from Cape Town and 252 non Cape Town) or nearly a quarter of all the respondents made some reference to a financial reason for not accepting their offer. Responses ranged from being unable to afford the upfront fee required at registration fees, “I unfortunately had no money to register” “Registration fee is unnecessarily high and its unreasonable to expect people to have R1900 and more on hand. Not everyone is rich and the university does not take that into consideration”.to specific references to tuition fees: “Tuition fees were too expensive for me as well as paying for accommodation and living expenses”, “It was not possible for me to afford both tuition at UCT and accommodation in town” “.UCT's fees were over R50 000 whereas Stellenbosch's are close to R30 000. UCT offered to give me R20 000 (entrance scholarship) which doesn't even cover half of the tuition fees whereas Stellenbosch is covering all my tuition fees”
“Going to Stellenbosch University is going to save me almost a quarter of a million rand with only the financial support I secured from my matric year. Compare that to the R20 000 entrance scholarship that UCT offered me and the choice becomes rather obvious”
Further comments focused on the expense of studying away from home: “I did not have the financial means to travel to Cape Town as it is too expensive”, “studying so far from home would not have been financially possible” as well as the inability to access financial aid: “I received five distinctions, have an excellent school and awards record but was not even considered for any financial assistance whatsoever, and was only offered a place for a degree I did not wish to pursue” More general statements related to family financial situations that could not accommodate the expenditure of further studies, and earlier, more generous offers of financial aid from other institutions, “I received a bursary fund that covers everything at UFS. The expense would have been too great to go to UCT.”
There were 155 comments on late offers both academic and/or a place in Residence, with some respondents being contacted by UCT when they were already enrolled in another institution. “I was already studying at Wits by the time I received my offer to study at UCT”. “Stellenbosch offered me a place in Residence at the same time confirming my acceptance into my degree of choice”. The lateness of UCT offers was of particular concern to Non Cape Town respondents (141) who felt they risked not being accepted and therefore enrolled at other institutions who gave earlier offers.” The offer came too late and was worried that UCT was not going to accept me, so accepted UP’s offer” Also, “It was too late and I had to make a decision. What if I waited for UCT and no offer was made?” Further cause for concern was being made an academic offer but no place in Residence, as these applicants would have to find accommodation very quickly.
“Offer came too late to travel from Gauteng to WCP, needed earlier planning especially financially for transport and accommodation.”
Not being offered their first choice was noted by 205 students, with 35 of these respondents wishing to study MBChB. Thirty (including eleven MBChB applicants) indicated that they had been accepted for their first choice at other institutions.
Table 5 indicates that 23% overall of “no shows” registered at the University of Stellenbosch, 38% of Cape Town respondents and 19% of non Capetonian respondents. Some of these respondents noted the eficiency and the helpful atmosphere of this institution “Because I felt more secure with Stellenbosch. They emailed me several times, they were more welcoming and kept me up to date with what was going on. Seemed friendlier and I didn't feel like a number.”
Further points made indicated that offers were made earlier, “I was accepted into Stellenbosch residence by April 2013 and received no confirmation as to my place in residence at UCT until late November” and that it was easier to secure Res places and/or bursaries. “did not have money to study and got a bursary from Stellenbosch.” “I received a bursary from Stellenbosch University and not from UCT. Stellenbosch accepted me and offered me residence early, UCT only did this at a later stage. MBChB is a very expensive course and I was not going to receive any financial help at UCT.”