Restricted Admission / Numerus Clausus

 

What does Numerus Clausus mean and how does such a value originate?

The designation Numerus Clausus (NC) does not refer to a previously determined grade one must obtain in order to receive a placement in the desired course of study, but rather means that a course of study has restricted admission because the number of applicants is greater than the number of spots actually available in the course of study.  The "value of the NC" which appears in statistics and the media is always the grade with which the latest admitted applicant received a placement for studies.

The NC should be solely understood as a value for the previous year, which should help students roughly determine how good their chances are of being admitted. The NC can vary greatly from year to year.

This value is not at all a testimony to the difficulty of the course of study.