UCT Short Courses

• Continuing Professional Development
• Centre for Extra-Mural Studies
• UCT Law @ Work
• UCT English Language Centre
• Continuing Education Unit Health

Continuing Professional Development

The Continuing Professional Development (CPD) program offers short courses, workshops, and conferences. These provide ongoing education for professionals, outside the formal academic courses offered at UCT for degree purposes. Continuing education includes all subjects that may benefit people in their professional and vocational activities.

Centre for Extra-Mural Studies

The Centre for Extra-Mural Studies (EMS) contributes to the university’s social responsiveness by supporting students and making academic and university resources available to a wider range of participants. The EMS provides a range of courses and learning opportunities for local and overseas university students as well as participants from commerce and industry, government departments, non-governmental organizations, and the general public.

EMS coordinates the annual Summer School, short courses for the general public, continuing education courses for working people, Third Term credit-bearing courses for current UCT students, and specialized programs for visiting international student groups.

LSE-UCT July School
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the University of Cape Town (UCT) offer the LSE-UCT July School for 2 weeks every year. This innovative and prestigious ‘summer school’-style program provides students, graduates, and professionals from across the globe with an exciting opportunity to study important social science issues relevant to Africa today. Subject areas include international relations, economics, management, government, geography, law, media, and social policy.

Summer School
The annual Summer School runs for 2 weeks in January each year and is the largest public education program of its kind in South Africa, regularly attracting around 3 000 people. Summer School offers courses on a range of topics from arts, humanities, and current issues to the physical and environmental sciences and aims to make specialized knowledge accessible to a wide audience, regardless of educational qualifications. These courses are for non-degree purposes and do not involve examinations or certification, though written or practical projects and reading may be required. The program is available from October each year on the Summer School website.

UCT Law @ Work

Leading the way in continuing legal education since 1999, UCT Law@work presents a range of seminars and courses dealing with various aspects of the law, including labor, commercial, and public law.

UCT English Language Centre

Based in the Faculty of Humanities, the UCT English Language Centre (ELC) delivers year-round programs in English as a foreign language to international participants of all ages. Courses are offered at various proficiency levels, including general English, English for business communication, and preparation courses for the IELTS (International English Language Testing System), TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language ), and Cambridge English exams. The English for Academic Purposes (EAP) program helps local and international applicants to UCT who need to improve their level of English before beginning their degree courses.

Continuing Education Unit Health

The Continuing Education Unit (CEU) Health is the official continuing education program for UCT’s Faculty of Health Sciences. The unit was established in October 2015 to facilitate short courses offered by the various departments in the faculty for the ongoing development of healthcare professionals.