The Modus Operandi of National Benchmark Test Project in South Africa: A Systematic Review

Abstract

National Benchmark Test Project (NBTP) was conceived as far back as 2004 by the public higher education leadership in South Africa and formally launched in 2005. NBTP was initiated to provide additional information to higher education in South African institutions in the admission and placement of students, establish the relationship between entry-level proficiencies and school-level exit, and inform the nature of foundation courses and curriculum responsiveness. The NBTP assessed the academic proficiency of candidates in three core domains. This test is criterion-referenced, providing additional information to complement the norm-referenced National Senior Certificate (NSC) results. About 22 studies dealing with various NBT titles are examined in a systematic review from multiple databases. There is no doubt that the end-product of NBTP will be an invaluable addition to the available current tools used for programme placement at higher education institutions (HEIs) in South Africa. In this fourth industrial revolution (4IR) era, we also recommend NBTP to include Digital Literacy (DL) in the existing core domains.