University access and success | 100-UP

100-UP is a UCT initiative addressing the problem of demographic under-representation in higher education by targeting school learners from disadvantaged backgrounds and coaching them towards university access.  The programme is a holistic initiative that builds intellectual, social and cultural capital. Learners are prepared and coached over three years by staff and students across the university working off the key belief that opportunity needs to be made more equal and inclusive.

The pilot project started in 2011 in Khayelitsha, with five Grade 10 learners identified from each of the 20 high schools in the area. 100-UP is now running at capacity, with a total of 300 learners (100 per Grades 10 – 12) per year, enrolled in the programme.  Since then more than 1000 learners have participated in the programme. Nine-hundred and sixty-three have obtained B-degree passes and 88% have secured access and are completing studies at university (as at 2018).

An additional group of ‘university potential’ Grade 12 learners, branded the GILL NET group, is brought on board after June each year in order to extend our reach as broadly as possible across the 20 Khayelitsha schools, as well as   from the 16 Mitchell’s Plain schools.

In 2014, seventy-nine of the first cohort of 100-UP and GILL NET learners entered UCT as 100UP+ students.  Their performance in the project demonstrates the success of this pioneering UCT intervention.  A longer-term objective is to use 100-UP to build institutional knowledge and experience that can better inform the university’s bridging programmes and school-based interventions.

100-UP doesn’t just work to benefit UCT. Matriculants are encouraged to pursue degrees in all fields of study at UCT or at any other university in South Africa. 100-UP students have registered for studies at the universities of Rhodes, Johannesburg, and Witwatersrand, to name a few. 

100-UP successes

100-Up is only possible with the help given by:

• All 6 faculties at UCT
• UCT Careers Services
• UCT undergraduate financial aid
• UCT accommodation office