1
University of Cape Town
No Show Survey Report 2012
Institutional Planning Department
July 2012
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2012 UCT No Show Survey
Contents
1
Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 4
2
Context ............................................................................................................................................ 4
3
2.1
UCT Admissions....................................................................................................................... 4
2.2
No Shows ................................................................................................................................ 4
2.3
Representivity ......................................................................................................................... 4
2.4
First and Second Choice Profile .............................................................................................. 5
2.5
Respondents Matric Aggregate Demographic Profile ............................................................ 6
Results ............................................................................................................................................. 6
3.1
What is your current main activity ......................................................................................... 6
3.1.1
Current Main Activity, All Respondents .......................................................................... 6
3.1.2
Current Main Activity, Demographic Profile ................................................................... 7
3.1.3
Current Main Activity, First Choice Offer ........................................................................ 7
3.2
Studying Elsewhere Institution ............................................................................................... 7
3.2.1
Studying Elsewhere, Top 8 Institutions All Respondents ................................................ 7
3.2.2
Studying Elsewhere Top 8 Institutions Demographic Profile.......................................... 8
3.2.3
Studying Elsewhere Top 11 Institutions, Notional A and B Matric Aggregates .............. 8
3.3
Reasons for not coming to UCT .............................................................................................. 8
3.3.1
Reasons for not coming to UCT, All Respondents (multiple choice answers) ................ 8
3.3.2
Reasons for not coming to UCT, 2nd choice..................................................................... 9
3.3.3
Reasons for not coming to UCT, Non Cape Town Black, Indian and White
Respondents ................................................................................................................................. 10
3.4
Reason for not coming to UCT, Open Ended ........................................................................ 10
3.5
Reasons for not coming to UCT: Financial ............................................................................ 10
3.5.1
Financial Reasons for not coming to UCT, All Respondents ......................................... 10
3.5.2
Financial Reason for not coming to UCT, 2nd Choice Offer ........................................... 11
3.5.3
Financial Reasons for not coming to UCT, Non-Cape Town Black, Indian and White
Respondents ................................................................................................................................. 11
3.6
What could UCT have done to secure your registration in 2012? ........................................ 11
3.6.1
What could UCT have done, All Respondents .............................................................. 11
3.6.2
What could UCT have done, First Choice Offers Respondents ..................................... 12
3.6.3
What could UCT have done, Second Choice Offers Respondents ................................ 13
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3.6.4
What could UCT have done, Notional A and B Matric Aggregate Respondents .......... 13
3.6.5
What could UCT have done, Non Cape Town Black, Indian and White Respondents .. 14
3.7
4
Do you plan to study at UCT in the future? .......................................................................... 14
3.7.1
Do you plan to study at UCT in the future, All Respondents ........................................ 14
3.7.2
Do you plan to study at UCT Non Cape Town Black Indian and White Respondents ... 14
3.7.3
Do you plan to study at UCT in the future, First choice offer respondents .................. 15
Discussion...................................................................................................................................... 15
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1
Introduction
The Institutional Planning Department conducts a No Show Survey on a cycle of every three or four
years. The No Show survey was last conducted amongst the 2010 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, what UCT could have done to secure their ultimate
registration as well as their intentions to study in the future at UCT. This report will discuss the
findings of the 2012 No Show Survey.
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Context
2.1 UCT Admissions
UCT received 25106 new undergraduate applications for the 2012 academic year and made
academic offers to 7921 applicants. Forty-five per cent (3565) of the 2012 admissions chose not to
register at UCT. International applicants received 12% (962) of the academic offers made by UCT for
the 2012 academic year, 465 (48%) international admissions chose not to enrol at UCT (please note
that the survey population in this report includes international applicants).
2.2 No Shows
The demographic profile of the 2012 “no show” admissions is as follows: 24% black, 8% coloured,
11% Indian, 38% white, 13% international and 5% unknown; 58% of the 2012 “no shows” were
female and 42% were male. Of the 3565 “no shows” 23% were financial aid eligible and 44% were
offered residence accommodation by UCT.
For the 2012 academic year, 70% of all the “no shows” and 67% of all the admissions achieved
notional A and B aggregates. The majority of the “no shows” with notional A and B aggregates were
First Choice Medicine (30%), Commerce (24%), with Humanities and Engineering at 17% and 16%
respectively. In addition the non-Cape Town based admissions made up the largest proportion of the
“no shows” with notional A and B Matric aggregates.
2.3 Representivity
A survey on the 2012 UCT “no shows” was conducted in March 2012 using a web survey tool.
Using email addresses, the questionnaire was sent to 3565 “no shows”, 665 of whom were from
Cape Town, with 2900 not from Cape Town.
There were 858 (23%) responses, 166 from Cape Town and 692 not from Cape Town.
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Table 1.
Population Group Profile of Respondent versus Survey Population
The comparison above shows that the survey respondents are reasonably representative of the “no
show” survey population: there is a slight over representation of white respondents, overall, and an
under representation of black respondents.
Table 2.
Gender Profile of Respondent versus Survey Population
Comparison of the two gender tables indicates an almost equal ratio of representation of the
genders within the pool of respondents.
2.4 First and Second Choice Profile
The highlighted figures in Table 3 indicate where the first and second choice offers are in the same
faculty.
Table 3.
First and Second Choice Profile
For example, 229 offers were made to Commerce applicants, 187 were offered their first choice
programme, 11 were offered a place in Commerce but in a different programme; 21 of the
Commerce offers were to respondents who had chosen a programme in Health Sciences as their first
choice. Alternatively, 211 respondents chose Commerce as their first choice faculty, 187 plus 11
received an offer from Commerce, 3 received an offer from EBE, 5 received an offer from Hum etc.
With the exception of Health Sciences, the majority of respondents received offers for their first
choice faculty.
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2.5 Respondents Matric Aggregate Demographic Profile
Table 4.
Respondents Matric Aggregate Demographic Profile
Table 4 shows the notional Matric aggregate of the 2012 “no show” survey respondents by
population group. 52% of respondents received a notional A Matric aggregate whilst 25% achieved a
notional B Matric aggregate. In contrast the percentages of notional A and B matric aggregates are
inverted in 2010, being 30% and 51% respectively. (Please note Chinese respondents are excluded)
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Results
This section presents and discusses the survey responses by question. The responses are grouped
according to four main categories of interest – Cape Town and non-Cape Town based, First Choice
and Second Choice Offer, notional A and B Matric aggregate and non-Cape Town based African,
Indian and white respondents. Due to the small number of Chinese respondents, they are excluded
in analysis by demographics. It should also be noted that in certain questions which catered for
multiple choice answers, the total number of responses will exceed the total number of
respondents.
3.1 What is your current main activity
3.1.1
Current Main Activity, All Respondents
Table 5.
Current Main Activity, All Respondents
The majority of respondents said they were studying elsewhere, (70% of the Cape Town respondents
and 83% of Non-Cape Town respondents) with a further 18% of the Cape Town respondents taking a
gap year. “Other” responses included doing religious courses, being involved with sport and
investigating other sources of financing studies. Of the ten respondents citing the later, 7 were NonCape Town based and 3 from Cape Town.
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3.1.2
Current Main Activity, Demographic Profile
Table 6.
Current Main Activity, Demographic Profile
No significant differences in the responses were noted when comparing population groups except
that a greater proportion of white respondents (13%) and international respondents (16%) chose to
take a gap year.(Please note due to small numbers, Chinese have been excluded in table 6)
3.1.3
Current Main Activity, First Choice Offer
Table 7.
Current Main Activity, First Choice Offer
Table7 which indicates the main current activity for respondents who received a first choice offer,
shows no significant differences in responses compared to the total survey respondents with similar
proportions studying elsewhere (67% for the Cape Town group and 83% for those non- Cape Town
based). A slightly higher percentage (21%) of Cape Town based First Choice Offer respondents
indicated they were taking a gap year compared to 18% of all respondents as shown in table 5.
3.2 Studying Elsewhere Institution
3.2.1
Studying Elsewhere, Top 8 Institutions All Respondents
Table 8.
Studying Elsewhere, Top 8 Institutions All Respondents
Table 8 indicates that amongst the “no show” respondents (80%) studying elsewhere for the 2012
academic year, the majority of those from Cape Town (53%) enrolled at the University of
Stellenbosch, with 16% choosing the University of the Western Cape. The two most popular
institutions for the Non-Cape Town respondents were the University of the Witwatersrand and the
University of Pretoria (26% and 20% respectively.)
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3.2.2
Studying Elsewhere Top 8 Institutions Demographic Profile
Table 9.
Studying Elsewhere Top 8 Institutions Demographic Profile
The pattern amongst the population groups showed that African respondents predominantly
enrolled at the University of the Witswatersrand or the University of Pretoria (31% and 27%
respectively) with the majority of Coloured respondents (50%) and White respondents (32%)
choosing the University of Stellenbosch. Forty per cent of Indian respondents registered at the
University of the Witwatersrand and 33% at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. (Chinese students not
included in population table)
3.2.3
Studying Elsewhere Top 11 Institutions, Notional A and B Matric Aggregates
Table 10.
Studying Elsewhere Top 11 Institutions, Notional A and B Matric Aggregates
Table 10 shows that the largest proportion (59%) of Cape Town based no show respondents with
notional A and B Matric aggregates studying elsewhere, indicated that they were studying at the
University of Stellenbosch for the 2012 academic year, with 17% registering at the University of the
Western Cape. The four most popular institutions amongst the non-Cape Town group were The
University of the Witwatersrand (28%), the University of Pretoria (21%) the University of
Stellenbosch (16%) and the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
3.3 Reasons for not coming to UCT
3.3.1
Reasons for not coming to UCT, All Respondents (multiple choice answers)
Table 11.
Reasons for not coming to UCT, All Respondents (multiple choice answers)
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In table 11,the main reasons given by the Cape Town based “no show” respondents for not coming
to UCT were “Financial Reasons” (36%), “Not getting into preferred faculty or degree (programme)”
(25%), “The offer of a place at UCT arrived too late” (19%) and “UCT was not your first choice
institution” (19%). Amongst the Non-Cape Town based respondents, the top three reasons for not
registering were “Not getting into preferred faculty or degree (programme)” (31%), “Financial
reasons” (28%), and “The offer of a place at UCT arrived too late” (27%). Of further significance is
that 20% of the non-Cape Town based respondents cited not being offered a residence place as a
reason for not coming to UCT and 15% wished to study closer to home. It is interesting to note that
of the 30% overall of no show respondents who cited not getting into preferred faculty or degree,
48% had chosen the MBChB. A large number of respondents gave “other” reasons for not coming to
UCT.
49 of the 184 no show respondents who gave an “other” reason for not coming to UCT cited
inefficiency and/or a lack of communication from UCT, 24 decided to take a gap year and 10 had
issues relating to accommodation. Smaller numbers of respondents gave reasons such as distance
from home and personal motives.
3.3.2
Reasons for not coming to UCT, 2nd choice
Table 12.
Reasons for not coming to UCT, 2nd choice
Of the 292 Second Choice offer respondents 68% (63% Cape Town and 69% non-Cape Town based
respondents) failed to register at UCT because they did not get into their First Choice
Faculty/Degree/Programme. 30% of the Cape Town based respondents and 17% of non-Cape Town
based respondents gave financial reasons for not registering at UCT, whereas 22% overall noted that
the offer from UCT arrived too late. Closer examination of the non-Cape Town group reveals a
greater percentage were influenced by the offer of a place at UCT arriving too late (23% v 16% for
Cape Town) not being offered a residence place (18% compared to 4% for Cape Town) and wishing
to study closer to home (10% v 2% for Cape Town)
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3.3.3
Reasons for not coming to UCT, Non Cape Town Black, Indian and White
Respondents
Table 13. Reasons for not coming to UCT, Non Cape Town Black, Indian and White
Respondents
In table 13, the non-Cape Town based Black respondents indicated four main reasons for not
enrolling at UCT: Financial reasons (46%), not getting into preferred faculty or degree /programme
(30%), offer of a place at UCT arrived too late (28%) and not offered a residence place (21%).
The Indian respondents’ top four reasons for not registering at UCT, were not getting into their
preferred faculty or degree/programme (47%) wishing to study closer to home (37%), financial
reasons (21%) and not being offered a place in residence (20%).
The non-Cape Town based White respondents cited not getting into preferred faculty or
degree/programme (30%) as the main reason for not enrolling at UCT, with 25% noting that the
offer of a place from UCT arrived too late and 22% claiming that UCT was not their first choice of
institution.
3.4 Reason for not coming to UCT, Open Ended
In response to the open ended question “What was the most important of these reasons for not
taking up your place at UCT?” 144 (17%) of all respondents reported financial reasons, 127 (15%)
stated the offer of a place at UCT had arrived too late and the majority of this group had already
accepted an offer from other institutions, 49 experienced residence related problems, 29 noted that
UCT was not their first choice and 8 were taking a gap year. Other reasons given included UCT not
offering a particular course or programme, funders dictating which institution students must attend,
and wishing to study closer to home.
3.5 Reasons for not coming to UCT: Financial
3.5.1
Financial Reasons for not coming to UCT, All Respondents
Table 14.
Financial Reasons for not coming to UCT, All Respondents
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In table 14, of the 256 respondents who cited financial constraints as the reason for not enrolling at
UCT, 83 had applied for Financial Aid, 22 from Cape Town and 61 from out of Cape Town, 24 local
respondents and 80 non-local respondents considered UCT’S tuition fees as being too expensive,
with 21 and 44 respectively reporting they had received a more attractive financial offer from
another institution. Of the 59 respondents who noted that UCT’s residence fees were too expensive
for them, 56 were non-Cape Town based.
3.5.2
Financial Reason for not coming to UCT, 2nd Choice Offer
Table 15.
Financial Reason for not coming to UCT, 2nd Choice Offer
Of the 56 Second Choice offer respondents who cited financial reasons for not enrolling at UCT, 19
had applied for Financial Aid, 30 found UCT tuition fees too expensive and 12 received a more
attractive financial offer from another institution. Twelve of the non-Cape Town based respondents
considered UCT residence fees to be too expensive, with ten deciding it would be too expensive to
study away from home.
3.5.3
Financial Reasons for not coming to UCT, Non-Cape Town Black, Indian and White
Respondents
Table 16. Financial Reasons for not coming to UCT, Non-Cape Town Black, Indian and White
Respondents
The above table examines in more detail the responses of the 140 non-Cape Town based black,
Indian and white respondents who cited financial reasons as a basis for not enrolling at UCT. Forty
nine respondents applied for financial aid, the majority being Black (41) with only nine overall
receiving a financial aid or bursary offer. 38% of respondents considered UCT tuition fees too
expensive and 39% decided that it would be too expensive to study away from home, particularly
among the white (58%) and Indian (50%) groups. 23% overall indicated that they received more
attractive financial offers from other Higher Education Institutions.
3.6 What could UCT have done to secure your registration in 2012?
3.6.1 What could UCT have done, All Respondents
This section will explore what the survey respondents felt that UCT could have done to secure their
registration in 2012:
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Table 17.
What could UCT have done, All Respondents
A significant proportion of respondents (29% Cape Town based and 30% of Non-Cape Town based)
regarded being given an earlier academic offer as the most important thing UCT could do to
encourage enrolment. Another significant consideration for both groups (28% of the Cape Town
respondents and 29% of Non-Cape Town respondents) was being offered a place in their first choice
degree. Being offered an Entrance Scholarship was considered the third most important contribution
from UCT for both the Capetonian respondents (25%) and non-Capetonians (20%)
Of the respondents who chose “Other”, there were requests for improved communication with and
information from UCT, and availability of specific programmes not currently offered whilst a small
proportion (21) stated that there was nothing UCT could have done to change their minds.
The principal overall responses to the question “What could UCT have done to secure your
registration” in the 2010 No Show survey together with comparative results from the 2012 No Show
survey are shown in the table below.
Table 18.
What could UCT have done to secure your registration 2012 versus 2010
The difference in the percentages in 2010 and 2012 could be attributed to the type of survey
instrument used. The 2010 “no show” survey was conducted telephonically which could have
encouraged or “forced” responses, as each option is read out to the respondent, whereas a web
survey tool was used in 2012 which emailed the survey to the “no show” group where there could
be less inclination to give multiple answers.
3.6.2
What could UCT have done, First Choice Offers Respondents
Table 19.
What could UCT have done, First Choice Offers Respondents
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In response to the question “What could UCT have done to secure your registration in 2012?”in
table 19, the majority (30%) of First Choice Offer “no show” respondents indicated that UCT could
have made an earlier academic offer. Within the Cape Town based group, 32% would have
registered if offered an Entrance Scholarship and 21% of the non-Cape Town based respondents
would have enrolled if offered a place in residence.
3.6.3
What could UCT have done, Second Choice Offers Respondents
Table 20.
What could UCT have done, Second Choice Offers Respondents
Of the 292 Second Choice offer respondents 188 would have registered at UCT if they were offered
their First Choice degrees: 30% (88) indicated that an earlier academic offer could have influenced
their decision while 19% of the non-Cape Town based respondents cited a place in residence would
have secured their ultimate registration at UCT. Overall, offers of financial aid and/or an Entrance
Scholarship (both 15%) could have influenced these respondents to register at UCT.
3.6.4
What could UCT have done, Notional A and B Matric Aggregate Respondents
Table 21.
What could UCT have done, Notional A and B Matric Aggregate Respondents
According to the A and B Matric aggregate respondents in table 21, UCT should have undertaken the
following measures to secure their ultimate registration: offered a place in first choice degree (31%
overall) made an earlier academic offer (28% overall) offered an Entrance Scholarship (22%) and
offered a place in residence (17% overall but 19% for non-Cape Town based respondents compared
to 8% of the Cape Town group.) A further 17% indicated that an offer of financial aid would have
been an incentive to register at UCT.
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3.6.5
What could UCT have done, Non Cape Town Black, Indian and White Respondents
Table 22.
What could UCT have done, Non Cape Town Black, Indian and Whi te Respondents
In response to the question “What UCT could have done to secure your registration for the 2012
academic year?” the majority (35%) of non-Cape Town based Black respondents indicated that they
would have registered if there had been an offer of financial aid. The majority (40%) of non-local
Indian respondents would have registered if given a place in their first choice degree whilst equal
proportions of the white majority (31%) indicated they would have registered at UCT if they were
given offers in their first choice degree and earlier academic offers.
3.7 Do you plan to study at UCT in the future?
3.7.1
Do you plan to study at UCT in the future, All Respondents
Table 23.
Do you plan to study at UCT in the future, All Respondents
More than half the respondents from both groups (Cape Town 59%, Non-Cape Town 65%) reported
that they are still interested in studying at UCT in the future although less than half (see table below)
reported considering doing so at an undergraduate level (Cape Town 46%, Non-Cape Town 42%)
3.7.2
Do you plan to study at UCT Non Cape Town Black Indian and White Respondents
Table 24.
Do you plan to study at UCT Non Cape Town Black Indian and White Respondents
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The majority (78%) of non-Cape Town based Black students indicated that they planned to study at
UCT in the future, although only 53% were interested in undergraduate studies. Among the Indian
and White respondents, 62% and 52% respectively indicated their intention to study at UCT in the
future but a third (33%) of the White respondents indicated no interest in pursuing undergraduate
studies at UCT.
3.7.3
Do you plan to study at UCT in the future, First choice offer respondents
Table 25.
Do you plan to study at UCT in the future, First choice offer respondents
Of the 566 First Choice Offer respondents, 63% overall noted that they planned to study at UCT in
future but only 41% were interested in undergraduate studies with a higher percentage among the
Cape Town based respondents (46%) than the non-Cape Town group (39%)
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Discussion
The 2012 No Show Survey was conducted in order to investigate the main reasons why large
proportions of applicants who were made academic offers for the 2012 academic year, chose not to
enrol at UCT. An analysis of the findings was done in order to identify whether any aspects of UCT‘s
policy or its practices deterred or excluded applicants from coming to UCT. This section will thus
provide a brief summary of the survey findings as well as a discussion on how UCT can improve its
take-up and retention rate of new undergraduate admissions.
The majority of respondents said they were studying elsewhere, (70% of the Cape Town respondents
and 83% of Non-Cape Town respondents) with a further 18% of the Cape Town respondents taking a
gap year. Other responses included doing religious courses and seeking financial aid. Within the
group of Cape Town respondents studying elsewhere, the majority, (53%) enrolled at the University
of Stellenbosch, with 16% choosing the University of the Western Cape. The two most popular
institutions for the Non Cape Town respondents were the University of the Witwatersrand and the
University of Pretoria (26% and 20% respectively.)
The main reasons given by the Cape Town based no show respondents for not coming to UCT were
Financial Reasons(36%), Not getting into preferred faculty or degree/programme (25%), the offer of
a place at UCT arrived too late (19%) and UCT was not their first choice institution(19%). Amongst
the Non Cape Town based respondents, the top three reasons for not registering were Not getting
into preferred faculty or degree/programme (31%), Financial Reasons (28%), and the offer of a place
at UCT arrived too late(27%). A large number of respondents gave “other” reasons for not coming to
UCT.
49 of the 184 no show respondents who gave an “other” reason for not coming to UCT cited
inefficiency and/or a lack of communication from UCT, 24 decided to take a gap year and 10 had
16
issues relating to accommodation. Smaller numbers of respondents gave reasons such as distance
from home and personal motives.
In response to the question “What was the most important of these reasons for not taking up your
place at UCT?” 144 (17%) of all respondents reported financial reasons, 127 (15%) stated the offer of
a place at UCT had arrived too late and the majority of this group had already enrolled in other
institutions, 49 experienced residence related problems, 29 noted that UCT was not their first choice
and 8 were taking a gap year. Other reasons given included UCT not offering a particular course or
programme, funders dictating which institution students must attend, and wishing to study closer to
home.
Of the 256 respondents who cited financial constraints as the reason for not enrolling at UCT, just
over a third of both Capetonians and Non Capetonians applied for Financial Aid (38% and 35%
respectively).A significant proportion of local respondents (42%) and non local respondents (44%)
considered UCT’S tuition fees as being too expensive, with 40% and 30% respectively reporting they
had received a more attractive financial offer from another institution. 32% of the non Cape Town
based respondents noted that UCT’s residence fees were too expensive for them.
A significant proportion of respondents (29% Cape Town based and 30% of Non Cape Town based)
regarded being given an earlier academic offer as the most important thing UCT could do to
encourage enrolment. Another significant consideration for both groups (28% of the Cape Town
respondents and 29% of Non Cape Town respondents) was being offered a place in their first choice
degree. Being offered an Entrance Scholarship was considered the third most important contribution
from UCT for both the Capetonian respondents (25%) and non Capetonians (20%)
Of the respondents who chose “Other”, there were requests for improved communication with and
information from UCT, and availability of specific programmes not currently offered whilst a small
proportion (21) stated that there was nothing UCT could have done to change their minds.
More than half the respondents from both groups (Cape Town 59%, Non Cape Town 65%) reported
that they are still interested in studying at UCT in the future although less than half considered doing
so at an undergraduate level (Cape Town 46%, Non Cape Town 42%).