University Of Pretoria Mechanical Engineering

Mechanical and aeronautical engineers are concerned with power-generating machines and systems such as vehicles, ships, air-conditioners, pebble-bed nuclear reactors, aeroplanes, engines and turbines, robots and biomedical systems. Areas of specialisation include product design and manufacturing (such as design, testing and improvement of mechanical, electrical, pneumatic and hydraulic systems), marine engineering and naval architecture, biomedical engineering, airconditioning and refrigeration, aerospace systems and aircraft/missile engineering, vehicle engineering, maintenance engineering and energy management (gas and steam turbines, nuclear power reactors, petrol engines, cooling towers and renewable energy systems).

• The closing date is an administrative admission guideline for non-selection programmes. Once a non-selection programme is full  and has reached the institutional targets, then that programme will be closed for further admissions, irrespective of the closing date. However, if the institutional targets have not been met by the closing date, then that programme will remain open for admissions until the institutional targets are met.
• The following persons will be considered for admission: Candidates who are in possession of a certificate that is deemed by the University to be equivalent to the required National Senior Certificate (NSC) with university endorsement; candidates who are graduates from another tertiary institution or have been granted the status of a graduate of such an institution, and candidates who are graduates of another faculty at the University of Pretoria.
• Life Orientation is excluded when calculating the APS.
• Grade 11 results are used for the conditional admission of prospective students.
• A valid qualification with admission to degree studies is required.
• Minimum subject and achievement requirements, as set out below, are required.
• Conditional admission to the four-year programmes in the School of Engineering is guaranteed only if a prospective student complies with ALL the requirements as indicated in the table.
• Admission to ENGAGE in the School of Engineering will be determined by the NSC results, achievement levels of 5 for Mathematics and 5 for Physical Sciences, and an achievement level of 5 for English, together with an APS of 30.
• Students may apply directly to be considered for the ENGAGE programme.
• All lectures at the University of Pretoria are presented in English only.

Note: The Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) accredits our programmes and our degrees meet the requirements for Professional Engineers in SA.

Transferring students

Candidates previously registered for the BSc – Extended programme

The Admissions Committee of the faculty considers applications of candidates who were previously registered for the BSc – Extended programme, on grounds of their NSC results as well as academic merit. Such students will only be considered for the four-year programme if they have passed all the prescribed modules and obtained a minimum of 65% in the Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry modules, respectively.

Candidates previously registered at UP or at another university

The faculty’s Admissions Committee considers applications of candidates who have already completed the final NSC examination and/or were previously registered at UP or at another university, on grounds of their NSC results as well as academic merit. Candidates who were dismissed from other faculties or universities will not be considered.

Candidates previously registered at a teacher’s college or university of technology

The faculty’s Admissions Committee considers the application of these candidates on the grounds of their NSC results as well as academic merit.

Qualifications from countries other than South Africa

• Citizens from countries other than South Africa and South African citizens with foreign qualifications must comply with all the other admission requirements and the prerequisites for subjects/modules.
• In addition to meeting the admission requirements, it may be expected from candidates to write the TOEFL, IELTS or SAT, if required.
• Candidates must have completed the National Senior Certificate with admission to degree studies or a certificate of conditional exemption on the basis of a candidate’s foreign qualifications, the so-called “Immigrant” or “Foreign Conditional Exemption”. The only condition for the “Foreign Conditional Exemption” that is accepted is: ‘completion of the degree course’. The exemption certificate is obtainable from Universities South Africa (USAf). Detailed information is available on the website at click here.

University of Pretoria website: 

*  Cambridge A level candidates who obtained at least a D in the required subjects, will be considered for admission. Students in the Cambridge system must offer both Physics AND Chemistry with performance at the level specified for NSC Physical Sciences in the table above.

*  International Baccalaureate (IB) HL candidates who obtained at least a 4 in the required subjects, will be considered for admission. Students in the IB system must offer both Physics AND Chemistry with performance at the level specified for NSC Physical Sciences in the table above.

The Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology at the University of Pretoria is a leading source of graduates in the engineering, built environment and information technology professions. We achieve this by a focus on research to drive innovative and enquiry-led teaching for educating and positioning our students to be leaders in their professions. The Faculty has extensive and cutting-edge teaching, learning and laboratory facilities integrated with the excellent suite of facilities and services offered by the University. We facilitate access to our qualifications through our extended programmes but expect our students to excel and develop as future professionals through our programme offering. We invite you to consider enrolling in one of our programmes if you share our vision of excellence and want to position yourself as a leader in the professions that we support.

The Faculty is organised in four schools: the School of Engineering, the School for the Built Environment, the School of Information Technology and the Graduate School of Technology Management. The School of Engineering is the largest of its kind in the country in terms of student numbers, graduates and research contributions and offers programmes in all the major engineering disciplines with many specialisations also offered at undergraduate and graduate level. 

The University of Pretoria aims to be internationally competitive while also locally relevant.  Advisory boards at both faculty and departmental level promote alignment and excellence in our teaching and research activities. Where applicable and available our programmes are accredited by statutory and professional bodies at both national and international level.