media releases - Late receipt of study material

Delays at SA Post Office in dispatching Unisa study material and admission to examinations

Unisa has had urgent meetings with the SA Post Office to address the problem of a backlog in the distribution of study material.

Assignment submission dates at Unisa have been adapted to address this problem.
Students were required to submit the first assignment for each course code by 27 February 2009 before they would be allowed to write the examination for that module. Due to the delay, however, any student who submits any assignment by 20 March 2009 will be admitted to the examination. All assignments will still be taken into account for calculating the year mark as stipulated in tutorial letter 101.

Students who have received their study material and who are able to submit their first assignments by the due date of 27 February 2009 are encouraged to do so. All assignments, however, that have been received by Unisa by 20 March 2009 will be assessed and returned to students. Any assignment received after this date will not count for admission to examinations.

Students are again reminded that all study material is available on myUnisa.

‘We are pleased to announce that, after optimising handling processes and clearing out the backlog, we are in a position to deliver learning material received from Unisa within 5 days. We have to date alerted 40 000 students of the availability of their study material by SMS with new dispatch numbers that improve our delivery process. Students are requested to call the Post Office contact centre at 0860111502 to enquire about their new dispatch numbers.’ Lungile Lose, South African Post Office Spokesman. Enquiries Tel 012 401 7735