Careers › Engineering

How to become a Biomedical Engineer

Builds medical devices and the technology used in healthcare.

What does a Biomedical Engineer actually do?

More about this career

Sits between engineering and medicine – designing the devices, imaging equipment and implants hospitals rely on. It’s a newer, smaller field in South Africa than most engineering disciplines, so check which universities and employers are actually active in it before assuming it’s as established as civil or mechanical.

Where this degree can take you

  • Medical Devices Engineer
  • Clinical Engineer
  • Rehabilitation Technology Engineer
  • Biomechanics Researcher

This is our general description of the role and related jobs, not from an official source – it’s here to give you a fuller picture, not as a careers-counselling guarantee.

Not from an official source

Subjects that usually help

  • Mathematics
  • Physical Sciences
  • Life Sciences

This is our general guidance about which school subjects suit this career. It is not an admission requirement and not from an official source – the real requirements are on the degrees below.

Not from an official source

Where to check this yourself

What the degrees we’ve captured actually ask for

  • Mathematics – asked for by 1 of 1 degrees
  • Physical Sciences – asked for by 1 of 1 degrees

Counted from the requirements below (an “or” alternative counts for each subject named). Each degree links to the page it came from.

Degrees that lead here

1 degree at 1 university. More are added as we verify them.

University of the Witwatersrand

From an older document

BSc (Eng) Biomedical Engineering

Engineering & the Built Environment · 3 years

Wits APS 42 points

  • English: level 5 if it is your Home Language, level 5 if it is your First Additional Language
  • Mathematics: level 5 (60% or more)
  • Physical Sciences: level 5 (60% or more)

This figure comes from the Wits schools-liaison Grade 12 guide, which is headed for 2026 entry. We have not yet found a 2027 course-finder page confirming it, so treat it as the most recent official figure rather than a confirmed 2027 one.

Source: View the official page (wits.ac.za) (opens the official page) · 2027 intake

Are your marks enough?

Put your subjects in once and we’ll check them against every degree above – scored each university’s own way.

What do I qualify for?