Applicants are required to prepare a research outline in line with the departmental focus/niche area requirements and the guidelines provided. Uploading a research outline is applicable to all qualifications, except for the MBA, MBL, coursework LLMs and coursework MCom in Industrial Psychology. Click here for the guidelines for preparing a research outline. 

The information below outlines the selection criteria, selection process and research focus areas for applying for a master's or doctoral qualification in the College of Economic and Management Sciences (CEMS).

Selection criteria

Students’ applications will be reviewed in accordance with the Procedures for Master’s and Doctorate Degrees (sections 3.1 to 3.3). The selection panel is not obliged to accept prospective students who meet the minimum criteria, as there are other factors (see below) that are considered (section 3.1):

• Meeting the minimum requirements as set out online
• Academic record
• Academic background
• Language competency
• The topic the applicant wishes to research
• The topic's alignment with the preferred research focus area
• Capacity and expertise to supervise the applicant
• Limitations imposed by enrolment planning

Selection process

Eligible students’ applications will be forwarded to the relevant Academic Department’s selection panel for consideration. Only after the application period has closed and applications have been processed (roughly mid-December), will the Academic Department’s selection panel consider the pool of applications per research focus areas and not on a "first come first serve basis". This will roughly take place in January. The selection panel evaluates each student’s application in terms of the criteria set out above.  Thereafter all applicants are ranked according to strength and supervisors assigned according to their expertise and capacity. The number of M and D registrations are informed by the availability of suitable supervisors to ensure that available supervisory capacity is not exceeded. This will maintain supervisor/student ratios that would be conducive to high-quality results. The Academic Department notifies the College of Graduate Studies: M&D Qualification Support of the outcome of the application (roughly February) who in turn will inform the applicant.

An example: A candidate holds a BCom Honours in Economics (average 61%) and as per admission requirements, applied for a Master’s in Economics. This candidate is specifically interested in the Research Focus Area "Development Economics" and has aligned his research outline accordingly. Twenty (20) eligible master’s candidates, however, have applied for this specific research focus with averages ranging from 60% to 80%. The eligible supervisors for this specific research focus area, on the other hand, can only supervise ten (10) master's candidates. The selection panel will review each candidate against the criteria as set out above, rank the students from 1 to 20, select only the strongest ten (10) master’s students and assign eligible supervisors. Competition for a space in the programme is therefore fierce and is it the responsibility of the student to convince the selection panel that his/her research outline is worthy of research.