Opening the doors of opportunity

For over fifteen years, the National Benchmark Tests (NBTs) at the University of Cape Town (UCT) have played a pivotal role in advancing equity and excellence in South African higher education. Born out of a commitment to help students from disadvantaged backgrounds gain fair access to university, the NBTs have become a critical diagnostic tool for measuring academic readiness, supporting student success, and informing institutional approaches to teaching and learning support. The Centre for Educational Assessments (CEA) is responsible for the administration and management of the NBTs. 

How NBTs make an impact:

Fair Access for all:  The NBTs originated to supplement the admissions process, particularly for students whose matric results might not fully reflect their true academic abilities. By offering additional insights into student academic preparedness, the NBTs help ensure that deserving students are not left behind.

Tailored support: Students receive benchmarked scores in three categories—Basic, Intermediate, and Proficient. These scores serve as early indicators of where students will require significant support to be successful at university:

Basic: Signals a need for significant academic support.

Intermediate: Suggests moderate support is needed.

Proficient: Implies readiness for university-level work.

Faculties may use these insights to offer targeted interventions at both individual and group levels, providing a diagnostic guide for lecturers of first-year courses and indicating areas for additional support or curriculum adjustments in order to accommodate incoming students. This work informs the initiatives that focus on the challenges of the transition to university and supports the common goal of improving long-term success, thereby enhancing throughput rates.

Participants at a standards-setting workshop

Sector-wide collaboration: The development of the NBTs is highly collaborative, involving input from all 26 higher education institutions in South Africa. This ensures that the assessments measure the skills truly needed for first-year success, providing benchmarks that cater to both degrees and diplomas. The teams creating the instruments and benchmarks don’t make decisions arbitrarily – these are academics/educators from all of the higher education institutions who know the specific requirements of the incoming first-year students at their institutions and what key literacies are important and relevant.    

Student focus: The CEA team is pivoting and sharing insights gained from years of NBT administration and data analyses with the future students themselves, their parents and stakeholders, such as fee-payers.  They recognise that it is critical for students to understand the differences and challenges they may face when transitioning from high school to university. They acknowledge that students may struggle academically in their first year because it involves (a) a different learning environment; (b) different ways of learning; (c) a different way of being supported by educators, and (d) language differences.  The way in which university lecturers examine and ask questions is different to the way they were examined at school.  Many schools are good at preparing learners for the NSC curriculum, but they may not have equipped them with the academic skills to flourish at university. One of the goals of the NBT team is to shift the perceptions of the learners and get them to ask themselves, ‘Do I know what I need to know about what I don’t know?’.  NBTs give students a realistic view of how they are likely to manage at university from day one. Students who arrive at university with good matric results but whose NBT scores indicate different preparedness levels can use this awareness to adopt targeted strategies for addressing their challenge areas.  

“A focus area of ours is to put out the narrative that even though the university to which you are applying may not require NBTs, there is huge value in writing them and getting information on where you are currently and what potential challenges may be once you enter university.”

Real Results, Lasting Impact

UCT integrates NBT insights into teaching and learning workshops and diagnostic tools. First-year lecturers can pinpoint where students need the most help, allowing for adjustments to curricula that genuinely support student growth.

Evidence-based support

Data from the NBTs is embedded into UCT systems, including the “Know Your Course, Know Your Students” (KYCS) dashboard, giving lecturers and support staff additional information about students’ baseline academic preparedness levels and their relevance in the course success. The KYCS reports provide course convenors with comprehensive data on specific courses and enrolled students, aiming to equip educators with the necessary information to address their students' needs effectively.

Adaptive Learning innovation

The NBT also equips and guides universities on how to bridge the gap, support students and improve throughput rates.  Innovative parallel support resources, guided by the diagnostic information leveraged from the NBTs, were piloted in the final year of the Diagnostic Mathematics Information for Student Retention and Success (DMISRS) project. The adaptive learning platform used in the pilot (ALEKS by McGraw Hill)  demonstrated how assessment-driven interventions could successfully bridge the school-university gap without placing additional strain on university support programmes.

In this pioneering mathematics support initiative, CEA used an AI-driven adaptive learning platform, linked with NBT-aligned curricula, to quickly assess and address gaps in mathematics skills. This programme has also shown positive outcomes at Rhodes University and the University of Zululand, improving students’ readiness for university-level mathematics.

Bridging the school-university gap – being prepared

Since the inception of the NBT, the CEA has worked with institutions to identify and address the disparities between school education outcomes and university readiness. By leveraging contemporary methodologies and technologies, CEA has developed innovative strategies to bridge these gaps.

The CEA team are working closely with colleagues within UCT to develop innovative support initiatives for high school learners who aspire to enter higher education. Through collaborative research and pilot programmes, they aim to create meaningful interventions that build genuine academic readiness rather than simply improving test performance. The team collaborates with the School’s Development Unit (SDU) to focus on developing resources and support strategies that prepare students for the academic demands of the university, looking at assessment as a tool for growth rather than a barrier to access.

Rising to New Challenges

The NBTs are evolving to meet changing educational and learner landscapes, including:

• Responding to disruptions like COVID-19 by transitioning rapidly to online testing
• Generating new test items regularly to maintain academic integrity in the digital age
• Working on strengthening the diagnostic information and improving reporting analytics
• Exploring ways to build earlier indicators of university readiness, such as potential Grade 11 assessments and collaborative research with schools.

Work we want to do in the future

Using data to map learning milestones for future success

We have a wealth of accumulated data on students’ performance, and are exploring opportunities to better understand learning trajectories for higher education success. We have initiated conversations with the Department of Basic Education to focus on how other national (e.g., systemic)  assessment data could be used to complete this picture. Our approach aims to identify key learning targets and milestones and possibly create a forecaster for the pathway from school to higher education.

Early indicators for success

We are developing plans to create an additional assessment instrument for Grade 11 learners that will provide early indicators of university readiness. With early indicators, we can start building skills that schools don’t equip learners with. This will enable them to understand where they stand and take proactive steps toward building essential skills for higher education success, including finding appropriate support, utilising digital platforms, and developing capabilities that schools may not fully address.

Adapting to the evolving nature of assessment

Given the complex and rapidly evolving nature of educational measurement and technology, our envisioned work requires significant investment and continuous adaptation - approaches from 15 years ago, while foundational, must now be expanded and modernised to address today's complex educational landscape. We hope to establish a research panel incorporating local and international researchers to advance this important work. This collaborative work benefits the entire higher education landscape, not just UCT.

The need for support and funding

The NBTs serve the entire higher education sector, and sustained innovation and impact depend on ongoing funding.  Critical projects and priorities in the pipeline that are funding-dependent:

• Leveraging partnerships with national education stakeholders to analyse, link and integrate assessment data for evidence-based insights into student progression into and success in higher education.
• Developing advanced analytics and predictive models that transform the vast array of existing accumulated data into actionable research and inform student support initiatives.
• Developing and broadening access to post-school education readiness resources for learners and teachers nationwide.
• Scaling adaptive learning platforms across academic domains, particularly mathematics and quantitative literacy.
• Growing local expertise in educational measurement through strategic investments in professional development and collaborative initiatives with international organisations.

Join us in shaping the future…

Supporting the National Benchmark Tests means investing in the success of thousands of future changemakers—opening the doors of higher education wider, strengthening our research base, and enabling a new generation of South Africans to thrive. UCT’s legacy of collaboration, innovation, and commitment to student success continues, but cannot grow without your partnership.

Your involvement as an alum – whether through funding, advocacy, or sharing our story, makes a direct difference.  Together we can build a more inclusive, responsive and successful higher education system for all.