Careers › Health

How to become a Pharmacist

Dispenses and advises on medicines, in hospitals, pharmacies or industry.

This needs more than the degree

After the degree there’s a required one-year community service placement (like doctors) before the SA Pharmacy Council will register you to practise fully.

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 Pharmacist actually do?

More about this career

Dispenses medicines and advises patients and doctors on how to use them safely – in a community pharmacy, a hospital, or in the pharmaceutical industry doing research, regulatory work or sales. A one-year community service year (like doctors) is required after the degree before full registration with the SA Pharmacy Council.

Where this degree can take you

  • Hospital Pharmacist
  • Clinical Pharmacist
  • Pharmaceutical Researcher
  • Regulatory Affairs Pharmacist

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 4 of 5 degrees
  • Physical Sciences – asked for by 4 of 5 degrees
  • Life Sciences – asked for by 3 of 5 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

5 degrees at 5 universities. More are added as we verify them.

Rhodes University

BPharm

Pharmacy · 4 years

Rhodes points 45 points

  • Mathematics: level 6 (70% or more)
  • Life Sciences: level 6 (70% or more)
  • Physical Sciences: level 6 (70% or more)
  • Life Orientation: level 4 (50% or more)

Rhodes points of 40-44 are considered at the Dean’s discretion; 45 or more receives a provisional offer. We show 45 as the qualifying number so that "you qualify" means exactly that - but you are still worth an application from 40. Rhodes has no Engineering and no MBChB. The NBT is recommended, not required. At 40-44 points the subject levels required drop to level 5. Life Orientation is not scored, but you need at least 50% in it.

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

Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University

Partly verified

Bachelor of Pharmacy

School of Pharmacy

SMU APS 32

  • Life Sciences, Mathematics, Physical Sciences, English – Each at level 5; Life Orientation at level 4; two further subjects (preferably Accounting and Economics) at level 4 each - these ARE on the standard 1-7 NSC scale, unlike SMU’s Medicine and Dentistry pages above.
  • Interview – Applicants who meet the academic minimums are invited to an interview.

Closes 31 July 2026 for undergraduate programmes (applications open 1 April 2026) - notably earlier than most universities in this batch.

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

University of KwaZulu-Natal

From an older document

Bachelor of Pharmacy

Health Sciences · 4 years

UKZN APS 33 points out of 48

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

University of Limpopo

Partly verified

Bachelor of Pharmacy

Health Sciences · 4 years

UL APS 27 points

  • English: level 4 (50% or more)
  • Mathematics: level 5 (60% or more)
  • Physical Sciences: level 5 (60% or more)
  • Life Sciences: level 5 (60% or more)
  • Two more subjects – Two further subjects at level 4 or better.

From UL’s 2027 Undergraduate Prospectus. UL states that meeting the minimum APS does not guarantee admission. No official 2027 closing date was found in the sections we read.

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

University of the Witwatersrand

No cut-off publishedFrom an older document

Bachelor of Pharmacy

Health Sciences · 4 years

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

  • 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)

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?