Careers › Built environment

How to become a Land Surveyor / Geomatics Professional

Measures and maps land, and manages spatial data.

This needs more than the degree

Only a *registered* professional land surveyor can legally define property boundaries. That registration comes after your degree, with further supervised experience and board exams – check the current requirements with the professional land surveyors’ board.

What does a Land Surveyor / Geomatics Professional actually do?

More about this career

Measures and maps land precisely – property boundaries, construction sites, mines – using GPS and specialised equipment, then manages the spatial data that comes from it. Registered (professional) land surveyors are the only people legally allowed to define property boundaries in South Africa, which keeps demand steady.

Where this degree can take you

  • Geomatics/GIS Specialist
  • Mine Surveyor
  • Cartographer
  • Remote Sensing Analyst

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
  • Geography (helpful)

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 2 of 2 degrees
  • Physical Sciences – asked for by 2 of 2 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

2 degrees at 2 universities. More are added as we verify them.

University of Cape Town

BSc Geomatics

Engineering & the Built Environment · 4 years

UCT Faculty Points Score 450 out of 600 (band a)

  • Mathematics: 75%
  • Physical Sciences: 70%

Band A (guaranteed offer) is an FPS of 450. Band B (likely offer) is a WPS of 420 - the WPS adds a 0-10% disadvantage factor that we cannot work out from your marks, so we only check you against Band A. Band C (390) applies to redress categories only. The subject minimums shown are the Band A ones; Bands B and C need Maths 65% and Physical Sciences 60%.

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

University of KwaZulu-Natal

From an older document

BSc Land Surveying

Agriculture, Engineering & Science · 4 years

UKZN APS 33 points out of 48

  • Mathematics: 65%
  • Physical Sciences: 65%
  • English: level 4 (50% or more)
  • Life Orientation: level 4 (50% or more)

The published APS range is 48-33. This comes from the Study@UKZN 2026 brochure, the most recent official source we could find. UKZN had not published a 2027 table when we checked, so treat these as 2026 figures pending a 2027 update. Applications go through the CAO.

Source: View the official page (studyatukzn.ukzn.ac.za) (opens the official page)

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?