Careers › Health

How to become a Clinical Associate

Works alongside doctors in district hospitals, doing clinical care.

Apply early

Selection programmes like this often close months before the standard application deadline, and marks alone don’t guarantee a place. See the Dates page for the exact closing dates.

What does a Clinical Associate actually do?

More about this career

A relatively new SA qualification – works under a doctor’s supervision doing much of the clinical work (examinations, basic procedures, managing common conditions), especially in under-resourced district hospitals. It’s a shorter route into clinical medicine than the full MBChB, aimed specifically at strengthening rural and district-level healthcare.

Where this degree can take you

  • District Hospital Clinician
  • Emergency Care Clinical Associate
  • Rural Health Practitioner

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 or Mathematical Literacy
  • 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
  • Mathematical Literacy – 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

No cut-off publishedFrom an older document

Bachelor of Clinical Medical Practice

Health Sciences · 3 years

No points cut-off published for this one – see the note below.

  • English: level 4 if it is your Home Language, level 4 if it is your First Additional Language
  • Mathematics: level 4 (50% or more) OR Mathematical Literacy: level 7 (80% or more)
  • Physical Sciences: level 4 (50% or more)

Wits Health Sciences uses a Composite Index (75% school average across 5 subjects, 25% NBT), not APS, and does not publish the cut-off scores. 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?