This study uses statistical analysis to estimate the impact of first-year academic development courses in microeconomics, statistics, accountancy, and information systems, offered by the University of Cape Town's Commerce Academic Development Programme, on students' graduation performance relative to that achieved by mainstream students. The data for four cohorts, covering the years 1999-2002 is pooled. The results suggest that membership of the academic development programme enables students to out-perform their peers on the mainstream controlling for a number of independent variables, and that the positive effect of the first-year courses on graduation performance is particularly pronounced for African students. The implications of these findings for higher education in South Africa are considered. (Contains 5 tables and 8 notes.)