{"doc_desc":{"idno":"zaf-uctsad-2012-2014-v1","producers":[{"name":"DataFirst","abbr":"DF","affiliation":"University of Cape Town","role":"Metadata producer"}],"prod_date":"2026-06-01"},"study_desc":{"title_statement":{"idno":"zaf-uctsad-2012-2014-v1","title":"UCT Student Admissions Data 2012-2014","alternate_title":"UCTSAD 2012-2014","identifiers":[{"identifier":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.25828\/cy36-bs17","type":"DOI"}]},"authoring_entity":[{"name":"Admissions Office","affiliation":"University of Cape Town"}],"series_statement":{"series_name":"UCT Student Admissions Data","series_info":"The UCTSAD series provides annual administrative microdata on applications submitted to the University of Cape Town. This dataset covers application cohorts from 2012 to 2014."},"version_statement":{"version":"v1.1: Edited data, for use in DataFirst's secure Remote Access Data Enclave","version_date":"2026-06-01","version_resp":"DataFirst","version_notes":"This is version 1.1 of the cleaned annualised files for the 2012 to 2014 UCT application cohort. "},"bib_citation":"UCT Admissions Office. University of Cape Town Student Admissions Data 2012-2014 [dataset]. Version 1. Cape Town: University of Cape Town [producer], 2026. Cape Town: DataFirst [distributor], 2026. DOI: https:\/\/doi.org\/10.25828\/cy36-bs17","study_info":{"abstract":"The UCT Student Admissions Data (UCTSAD) 2012-2014 dataset records all applications submitted to the University of Cape Town (UCT) that belong to the 2012 to 2014 student application cohort. UCT's Information and Communication Technology Services (ICTS) extracted the source data from the UCT student administration SQL database and made it available to DataFirst for curation and dissemination. The dataset comprises four files for the 2012-2014 cohort: an application-form file recording every stage of every application process; a person file recording biographical and demographic characteristics of each applicant; a secondary-school-subject file recording the school subjects and results that applicants reported on their applications; and a tertiary-education file recording any prior tertiary study that applicants declared.\n\nBetween 2012 and 2014, UCT Admissions Office planned to revise their undergraduate admissions policy. For this reason, they included a supplementary research section (Section K) in the application form for information on education disadvantage. This information was solely for policy review purposes and was not used in admission decisions for the 2012\/2014 intake.  Because the application form differed for these years the data has been kept separate from that of the other years. \n","keywords":[{"keyword":"university applications"},{"keyword":"student admissions"},{"keyword":"higher education"},{"keyword":"secondary school subjects"},{"keyword":"prior tertiary education"},{"keyword":"administrative records"},{"keyword":"South Africa"},{"keyword":"University of Cape Town"}],"nation":[{"name":"South Africa","abbreviation":"zaf"}],"geog_coverage_notes":"The dataset covers only applications submitted to the University of Cape Town. Geographic variables within the dataset, such as home address, reflect applicants' self-reported information and are not independently verified.","analysis_unit":"Student application ","universe":"All persons who submitted an application to the University of Cape Town and whose earliest application-process date falls in the calendar years 2012 to 2014.","data_kind":"Administrative records","coll_dates":[{"start":"2012","end":"2014"}]},"method":{"data_collection":{"time_method":"Cross-section [cross section]","coll_mode":"Self-administered web forms and hard-copy forms","coll_situation":"Section K of the admissions application form comprised a set of voluntary research questions designed to support a planned revision of UCT's undergraduate admissions policy. Applicants were explicitly informed that their responses to this section would not influence admission decisions for the 2012\/2013 academic year, and that their names would not be linked to their answers.\n\nParticipation was voluntary, though strongly encouraged. The questions collected information across five thematic areas:\n- Educational disadvantage: Whether the applicant considered themselves to have been educationally disadvantaged by apartheid.\n- School fee status: Whether the applicant's last school was a no-fee State school, and whether they received a fee reduction.\n- Parental\/guardian education: Whether the applicant's mother, father, grandparent, or primary guardian\/caregiver held a university degree.\n- State support: Whether the applicant received any child support grant and whether their family rely on a social pension from the State. \n- Mother or primary guardian first language \n\n"},"data_processing":[{"type":"Derivation","description":"The annual cleaning R script assigns application process identifier by scanning application rows in chronological order within each person-and-application group. A new process begins when the application program action equals 6, 9, 4, or 14; the process ends at the first row whose application end effective date equals 9999-12-31."},{"type":"Derivation","description":"The annual cleaning script derives the application year as the four-digit calendar year of the minimum application begin effective date within each combination of person identifier and application process identifier This variable identifies each application process as belonging to a specific annual cohort."},{"type":"Correction","description":"Named anomaly corrections adjust the application year for specific records where the algorithmically derived year does not match the intended application cohort. Each correction carries an explanatory comment in the R cleaning script."},{"type":"Linkage","description":"Person, secondary-school-subject, and tertiary-education records link to the annual cohort through the person identifier present in the yearly application-form file. Secondary-school-subject records are retained when the school year is less than or equal to application year, or when the school year is missing. Tertiary-education records are retained when tertiary education year is less than or equal to year of application."}],"coding_instructions":[{"txt":"All cleaning and linkage steps are encoded in a single reproducible R script (2026-uctsad-yearly-cleaning-guide-v1.1) using the following packages: tidyverse, haven, lubridate, purrr, and skimr. The script reads the grouped source .dta files, builds the yearly application-form file, and derives the linked yearly person, secondary-school-subject, and tertiary-education files. Run the script from top to bottom without skipping any section to reproduce the output. Do not edit the source .dta files by hand before running the script. Place all corrections inside the script so that the same output can be reproduced in every subsequent run.","formal_language":"R"}]},"data_access":{"dataset_availability":{"access_place":"Remote Access Data Enclave","access_place_url":"https:\/\/www.datafirst.uct.ac.za\/get-data\/remote-access-data-enclave","status":"Available in DataFirst's Remote Access Data Enclave","file_quantity":"4"},"dataset_use":{"contact":[{"name":"DataFirst","affiliation":"University of Cape Town","uri":"https:\/\/www.datafirst.uct.ac.za","email":"support@data1st.org"}],"cit_req":"UCT Admissions Office. University of Cape Town Student Admissions Data 2012-2014 [dataset]. Version 1. Cape Town: University of Cape Town [producer], 2026. Cape Town: DataFirst [distributor], 2026. DOI: https:\/\/doi.org\/10.25828\/cy36-bs17","deposit_req":"Users who publish results based on this dataset must notify DataFirst before publication and provide a copy of the publication or working paper.","conditions":"Data available through our secure Remote Access Data Enclave"}},"study_authorization":{"date":"2014","agency":[{"name":"Admissions Office","affiliation":"University of Cape Town","abbr":"UCT"}],"authorization_statement":"Permissions were granted to DataFirst to make UCT Student Admissions Data available to accredited researchers through our secure data service in 2014 and 2019. Permissions to share the data in the secure Remote Access Data Enclave was granted by the Admissions Office on the 25th November 2024. "}},"tags":[{"tag":"administrative data"},{"tag":"DataFirst"},{"tag":"higher education"},{"tag":"South Africa"},{"tag":"student admissions"},{"tag":"UCTSAD"},{"tag":"university applications"},{"tag":"University of Cape Town"}],"additional":{"series_idno":"zaf-uctsad","cohort_year":2014,"source_period":"2006-2014","n_data_files":4,"cleaning_script":"2026-uctsad-yearly-cleaning-guide-v1.1.R","documentation":["2026-uctsad-yearly-cleaning-guide-v1.1.docx","uct-sad-2006-2014-notes-v1.pdf"],"linkage_key":"personid \/ person_id (renamed in newer source periods)"},"schematype":"survey"}