The College of Education has a range of initial teacher education, professional and academic, formal and non-formal undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications. The various qualifications are available for students to qualify and/or develop themselves as professional teachers in various phases, subjects and roles.
Click here to learn more about the range of education qualifications on offer.
The Higher Certificate in Education offers an alternative entry-level opportunity for potential students in the College of Education who do not meet the national admission criteria for higher education. It is a one year, 120 credit qualification that provides an access route into the Bachelor of Education qualifications.
It is offered in two streams, namely:
Once completed in a specific stream, students will meet the admission requirements into the corresponding Bachelor of Education Phase. (eg. HCert FIP will only allow admission into the BEd Foundation Phase or BEd Intermediate Phase)
No, it does not necessarily. The Higher Certificate in Education is an access qualification that will increase your APS score. However, due to its popularity, spaces are limited and students with an average of 65% and above will be given the offers first.
The new Bachelor of Education (BEd) qualifications (90102, 90103, 90104) were introduced in 2019. These are 480 credit, NQF Level 7 qualifications. The curriculum was designed in such a way that every preceding year prepares the student for the content of the following year. The curriculum is a set of building blocks and without having passed the previous modules, students’ chances at success will be compromised. Within all the BEd programmes, students need to take a Teaching Practice module every year, which becomes more involved and evolved with every year of registration. PLEASE NOTE: You may only register ONE Teaching Practice per year. Therefore, a student needs to be fully prepared for this module to successfully and with full understanding complete a specific year’s Teaching Practice. It is therefore advised that students access the curriculum of their qualification and register the modules in sequence from Level one before the modules in Level two and so on. Students should register the modules of the qualifications correctly and plan and prepare to get the best outcomes of the qualification.
In the event that a student registers incorrectly, the university reserves the right to cancel the incorrectly registered module(s).
There are three language choices to be made in the Bachelor of Education (90102 and 90103) qualifications. You have to select your Home Language in your qualification based on your Matric Home Language. Then you decide on your First Additional Language. This should not be the same as your Home Language. English is compulsory as a First Additional Language if it is not your Home Language. Lastly, you will choose your communicative competence which must be different to the Home Language and First Additional Language choices. This module is for basic conversational competence in a third language. The language choices form an important part of the qualification and if you do register incorrectly, you can go onto myUnisa and request a cancellation in order to register correctly (please note that this could have a financial impact – see the Unisa Rules for students).
Foundation Phase students, please refer to the link below to assist you to register the Language modules correctly:
Intermediate Phase students, please refer to the link below to assist you to register the Language modules correctly:
The Bachelor of Education in Senior Phase and FET Teaching (90104) and Postgraduate Certificate in Education in Senior Phase and FET Teaching (90148) consist of several streams with various subject specialisations. It is important to apply for and study within the stream that you wish to become a teacher for. For example, if you wish to become a Senior/FET Phase Mathematics teacher, you should look at the streams which include Mathematics and make your selection accordingly. Each stream has unique admission requirements. Students are advised to check the admission requirements.
The purpose of the qualification is to improve the status of the practitioners that are already employed in Grade R and allow them to access and gain credit toward the Bachelor of Education Foundation Phase Teaching, since this is the minimum requirement for Grade R teachers.
Students who apply for the Diploma Grade R Teaching are required to submit proof of employment since the purpose of the Diploma is to provide for the needs of Grade R practitioners currently in the field. This enables those who complete the Diploma in Grade R Teaching to have a good chance of employment in the public-school sector. The qualification will only be offered until 2027 and the last year for intake will be 2025 to respond to the qualification level of Grade R teacher in practice.
Students are advised to register for their modules at the beginning of the year as the College of Education modules are year modules and cannot be added in the June/July registration period. Students can register for a maximum of 10 modules, 120 credits per year. All the modules in the qualifications in the College of Education are moving toward a fully online offering. This means that your material, your interaction with lecturers and peers and your assessments will take place online, through the learning management system, Moodle. You should therefore have a device and access to the Internet to optimise your student experience.
Yes, Unisa offers the Postgraduate Certificate in Education in Senior Phase and FET Teaching (90148). The qualification is offered in a number of streams in various school subject specialisations. Students who are currently busy with the previous PGCE qualifications (02631, 02623, 02615) had until 2022 to complete the PGCE and/or to meet any outstanding requirements i.e. modules registered under Non-Degree Purpose (NDP). There will be no registrations for these PGCEs in 2023.
Students who are currently busy with the Old BEd degree qualifications (pipeline students) have until 2024 to complete these qualifications. The Old BEd degrees (02593, 02607 and 02615) are still accredited and will still be recognized for employment purposes.
No, both the Old and New BEd degrees are on NQF Level 7 and both are recognized for employment as a teacher.
It is advisable to visit the College of Education website to see what postgraduate qualifications are on offer, as well as what the admission requirements and curriculum for each one is.
It is possible. You will have to apply for admission to the new proposed qualification. You will, however, loose credits as the modules and curriculum will be different.
No. For all students who are registering for an initial teaching qualification, it is compulsory to register for teaching practice modules as per the curriculum in each year. Only ONE teaching practice module can be registered each year.
Students are allowed to conduct their teaching practice in their respective countries.
Once you are registered for a Teaching Practice module, you will be given information on how to register on the online learning platform (Moodle). You will have to provide details of the school of choice which must be relevant to the phase of the qualification and dates that will fulfil the stipulated period per year, as per the requirements of the qualification.
Please note that once you are registered, you will get all required information about teaching practice placement. In your Tutorial letter 101 for the Teaching Practice module that your registered online, you will find the contact person per province or international office.
For any enquiries regarding College of Education, please send an email to edu-enquiries@unisa.ac.za
For application and registration enquiries you can email educare@unisa.ac.za
Click here to download the document