SakhileKhuzwayo222/uniapplicationscraper

Automated web scraper extracting structured data of South African higher education institutions from the official DHET interactive map, enabling research and educational data integration. # 🎓 University Application Scraper (DHET Map Extractor) > **Automated Web Scraper** that extracts data on South African higher education institutions from the official DHET (Department of Higher Education and Training) interactive map. > The scraper outputs structured data for use in research, education portals, data analytics, and more. --- ## 🧭 Table of Contents - Overview - Features - Project Structure - Setup & Installation - Usage - Example Output - Logging - Auto-Generated README - License --- ## 🧩 Overview The **University Application Scraper** automates data extraction from the interactive DHET institutional map to collect: - Institution names - Institution types (TVET colleges, Universities, etc.) - Source URLs for reference - Date and time stamps indicating when the data was scraped All collected data is saved in structured **JSON** format located in the `data/` directory for downstream consumption. --- ## ✨ Features - ✅ Headless browser automation using Selenium for efficient scraping - ✅ Dynamic extraction of institution markers directly from the DHET map interface - ✅ Robust error handling and retry logic for scraping stability - ✅ JSON output format to facilitate easy integration with other systems - ✅ Detailed logging system to aid debugging and monitor scraper activity --- ## 📝 License This project is open source under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details. --- ## 💡 Maintainer **Author:** Sakhumuzi Khuzwayo **Purpose:** Enable accessible extraction of South African higher education institution data for research and integration. ---