CAO Terms And Conditions

CAO Terms And Conditions | Central Applications Office Terms And Conditions

Important Notice and Terms and Conditions

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CAO Acronyms And Abbreviations

1. Definitions and interpretation

1.1 The following expressions have the following meanings:
1.1.1 ‘Administration Fee‘ means such reasonable fees as CAO may specify from time to time for specified administration or account activity.
1.1.2 ‘CAO Handbook‘ means the current year’s handbook as updated and reissued by CAO each year and/or otherwise published on the CAO website.
1.1.3 ‘Programme‘ means an undergraduate programme of study offered to applicants by public institutions and Private Colleges in KZN through the application services provided by CAO.
1.1.4 ‘Application‘ means any submission for one or more Programmes made by an applicant through CAO, including the supporting information required by the institutions to make their selection decisions.
1.1.5 ‘Applicant‘ means a person who has submitted a completed application.
1.1.6 ‘Applicant Data‘ means all data and information relating to an applicant, including their personal data.
1.1.7 ‘Personal Data‘ shall have the same meaning as in The Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA).
1.1.8 ‘Signed Declaration’ refers to the signed statement by an applicant that information supplied is true and correct.

1.1.8.1 Where the applicant is under 18, s/he must be assisted with the declaration, by a parent or legal guardian.

1.1.9 ‘Supporting Documents‘ means various documents required by individual institutions to make selection decisions:
(a) Current Grade 12s: ID, Final Grade 11 Progress Report, (when applying), PLUS Mid-Term/ June Grade 12 and September/ Grade 12 Trial results as soon as they become available.
(b) Applicants who have already passed Grade 12 and have not studied at another post school institution: ID.
(c) Applicants who have already passed Grade 12 and have studied at another post school institution: ID, full academic record.
(d) Applicants who wish to study at a private college offering FET programmes: ID, copy of highest qualification achieved.
(e) If you have upgraded one or more of your subjects, send us a certified copy of your combined statement/ certificate of results.
(f) Please note: Some institutions may request additional documents.
(g) If you have already written the Final Grade 12 NSC examinations, your results will be downloaded directly from the Department of Basic Education database. This applies for public schools, Independent Examinations Board (IEB) and South African Comprehensive Assessment Institute (SACAI) examinations, i.e. certified by UMALUSI.
(h) If you don’t have a copy of your ID, you must provide your ID number and submit a certified copy of your ID as soon as you receive it.
1.1.10 ‘Intellectual Property Rights‘ means all patents, copyright and related rights, trademarks, trade, business and domain names, goodwill or actionable claims for passing off designs, database rights, confidential information (including know-how and trade secrets) and any other intellectual property rights, in each case whether registered or unregistered and including all applications for renewals or extensions of such rights, and all similar or equivalent rights or forms of protection in any part of the world.

2. Apply and pay the administration fee online at www.cao.ac.za and once the administration fee has been cleared, your application will be made available to the institution/s to which you have applied on the next business day.

2.1 When you apply online and then pay via EasyPay, your application will be made available to institutions the next business day after your funds have been cleared.
2.2 If you apply by submitting a hard copy application form and you pay the administration fee, your application takes at least two weeks after we receive your application form and payment before it is available to the institution/s to which you have applied.

3. Complete and submit your online application as soon as possible on our website (www.cao.ac.za).

4. The CAO processes applications for member institutions from 01 March for the following years January (First Semester) intake. The CAO processes applications for member institutions that have a Second Semester intake from 01 August for the following year’s July (Second Semester) intake.

5. For TVET College applications, contact the TVET college directly.

6. All supporting documents must be uploaded on our website (www.cao.ac.za). We do not accept hard copy or emailed documents.

6.1. Ensure that documents are clear and legible. Illegible documents could delay or jeopardise the selection process at institutions.

7. The earlier in the year you apply, the earlier you are considered for a place.

8. Your biographical details (ID number and Full Name and Surname) must be an exact match with your details on your DBE Final Grade 12 Examination. If they differ, we will not be able to download your final examination results from the DBE database and match them to your application information at the institution to which you have applied.

9. An application is considered to be valid only once the full application (online or hard copy), including the programme choices, signed Declaration and Informed Consent (u18’s) as well as the full administration fee have been received by the CAO. Only then will your valid application be processed and made available to institutions.

10. The official Received Date for the application will be the date on which the completed/valid application – with programme choices, full payment, Signed Declaration and Informed Consent (u18’s) have been received. Only then will your valid application be processed and made available to institutions.

11. Administration and Change of Mind (COM) fees are not refundable.

12. You must supply the correct email and cell phone number as all messages are sent to you via SMS and/or email while all letters are sent to you via email.

See also CAO Member Institutions

13. Without a valid cell phone number, you will not receive any messages from the CAO or institutions to which you have applied. Without a valid email address, you may miss requests or offers made by the institution/s to which you applied.

14. The cell phone and email details we use are those on your original application or that you have since updated online AFTER you have applied. See Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2002 on www.gov.za regarding emailed documents.

15. Within four weeks after CAO receives your valid application, we will send you an Acknowledgement Letter by email in which the CAO acknowledges that we have received and processed your application.

16. The Acknowledgement Letter will have all the details you have provided on your application. Applicants are fully responsible for checking their acknowledgement letters and informing the CAO of any errors, omissions or changes so that they may be corrected.

17. If you do not inform us of errors, omissions or changes within one week after we have sent you an Acknowledgement Letter, the CAO shall accept that all the information in an Acknowledgement Letter is correct and as complete as you want it to be.

18. If you have not received an Acknowledgement Letter by the end of four weeks after you have applied, please enquire if the CAO has received your application. (See page 3 for contact details).

19. We provide your information to institutions electronically. The institutions have full and final responsibility for selection and admission decisions, not the CAO.

20. All selection and admission decision queries must be directed to the respective institution, not to the CAO. The CAO does not make selection and admission decisions.

21. Institutions will contact you directly with their selection decision. Sometimes institutions request that the CAO also convey a selection decision to an applicant, but the communication received directly from the institution must be regarded as the official notification.

22. Institutions start making offers early in the year preceding the year of entry. It is in your best interest to submit your valid application as early as possible. The following year’s January applications open on 1 March of the year preceding the entry year.

23. Subject to item 21 above, we will send you an SMS or a letter to inform you of any offers that you have been extended by an institution to which you have applied. You must have an email address to which we can send offer letters as institutions often have a cut-off date for your response. If the acceptance of the offer is not received by the institution within the stipulated cut-off period, the institution reserves the right to withdraw the offer.

24. Offers to study may be withdrawn if:

24.1 You don’t – within the period stipulated by the institution – tell the institution you want to accept the offer.
24.2 The conditions of the offer are not met.
24.3 The institution discovers that you have provided false information in your application, e.g., you have not declared that you have previously been registered or studied at that or another post school institution.

25. You will receive either an email or SMS to inform you that you have been unsuccessful for any of the programme choices you applied for.

26. Applicants should apply and pay on or before the published closing dates. Applicants may still apply after the programme closing date, but applications received after these dates will be considered as Late Applications and each institution has its own rules and procedures on how they deal with applications received after the programme closing date, e.g., your application may only be considered after all ‘on-time‘ applications have been considered and only if places are still available. Even though your application is received after the programme closing date and is considered as being ‘late‘, you still only pay the ‘on-time‘ advertised administration fee until 31 October for 1st semester and 31 May for 2nd semester.

27. Applications and/or administration fee for programmes that have reached or passed the advertised programme closing date and are advertised with the note ‘No Applications will be considered if received after the closing date‘ or receive the ‘Applications Closed‘ status will not be considered by that institution.

28. Unlike programmes, which may all have different programme closing dates, there is ONE date on which the LATE ADMINISTRATION FEE takes effect, i.e., 1 November for first semester programmes and 1 June for second semester programmes.

29. If, after you have applied, you want to change your programme choices, or rearrange the order of your choices, you should do so online on our website (www.cao.ac.za) and click on the ‘Change of Mind‘ icon.

30. A ‘Change of Mind‘ is automatically processed immediately once the request and administration fee are received. See fee structure on page 24.

31. Any number of programme changes/additions (up to six programmes) in the same Change of Mind Request is considered as one for payment purposes.

32. If you submit qualification/programme changes/additions in more than one Change of Mind Request and/or at different times, each Change of Mind Request submission will be regarded as a separate request and an administration fee must be paid for each submission, not for each qualification/programme change.

33. Payment/s for multiple COM Request submissions will be allocated and processed strictly in the sequence that the COM Request was received by CAO i.e. the earliest COM request first.

34. If you have applied to study in Jan/Feb but did not register, you have an opportunity to extend your application to the next available entry term or year. This request, together with the COM administration fee, must reach the CAO by 31 March 2023. If you miss the deadline you will have to make a new application and pay the full administration fee.