The University of South Africa (UNISA) recently announced that they’ve restructured their application process to become an open and continuous process. What does this new development mean for students looking to study for an under/postgraduate or honours degree at UNISA?
Also Read: UNISA Application 2020
Undergraduate, postgraduate, and honours degrees: What’s different?
Time – it’s a valuable commodity in this day and age. When it comes to students applying for a UNISA qualification, timing is everything. With the open application policy, students now have enough time to make an informed decision on their futures.
However, like with any app that’s on your phone, there are “terms and conditions” that do apply. In this instance, while the application window remains open all year, when exactly a student applies can determine when they can register for their qualification.
For example, let’s say the cut-off date for applications for Semester 1 2020 closes on 20 December 2019. Students who want to start studying in Semester 1 of 2020 have to apply before or on 20 December to have their applications under consideration. Any applications received after the cutoff date is not counted towards Semester 1 and will instead be considered for Semester 2.
Timing is Everything
The changes to UNISA’s application process only reinforces the fact that time matters and that students have to apply as soon as they can. The sooner students apply for their qualifications, the sooner they’ll receive feedback – at most no later than a week before the closing of the selected registration period.
This leaves students with enough time to accept or reject the offer, register for their qualification as well as pay least the minimum study fee amount payable.
Many students will have figured out by now that it’s acceptance to study at UNISA is not a guarantee, despite meeting the admission requirements. A major attribute to this is an over-subscription for certain qualifications. Over-subscription refers to the number of applications received for a qualification is greater than the spaces allocated for the qualification.
Students unable to apply for an Education qualification during the current application window is a recent example of over-subscription. The demand from students looking to study an Education qualification was so high that UNISA removed all (bar one) College of Education qualifications from the UNISA website.
Applicants will be notified by the university whether the qualification that they’ve applied for is oversubscribed. They would therefore have to wait for the next application period to get a chance of applying for their chosen qualification.
“The more things change, the more they stay the same…”
It’s not surprising to learn that with all the changes made to UNISA’s application structure, certain things remain the same. Things like:
- Meeting the admission requirements of the qualification of choice;
- Applicants having 10 days to accept or reject the offer received by UNISA;
- Application fee remaining R110 for online applications and R170 for hard-copy applications;
- Semester 1 (January) & 2 (mid-June to mid-July) modules as well as year (January to March) module registration dates remaining the same.
Students looking to study at UNISA in the near future can apply at the following avenues:
- Visiting the UNISA website and applying online;
- Visiting your nearest UNISA campus to either apply at a self-help booth or a hard-copy application
Also Read: The Do’s and Don’ts of Applying to UNISA
Published on 12 November 2019
