• All students who completed higher certificates in 2018 should be allowed to proceed with registrations from 02 January 2019; and 
• All qualifying students must find space in the university.

• The university will make every effort to ensure that all 2018 Higher Certificate students who have applied for admission for cognate Bachelor’s degrees; and meet the admission requirements, will be accordingly registered.
• Unisa is subject to the DHET Student Enrolment Planning Policy Framework and as such our head count is limited to 380 000 and the first-time entering students to 54 434. Unisa is not in a position to accept all qualifying students. However, Unisa Management has agreed to consider an additional 10 887 first-time entering students who have applied and who qualify.  

Unisa has an integrated planning process, which includes the preparation of a 3-year budget in accordance with pre-determined prescripts, and is approved by the Unisa Council, in terms of the HE Act. The annual fee increase is also considered during this MTEF process, and is an integral part of ensuring the financial sustainability of the institution.

The annual fee increase proposed and approved by Council was 6.9% (weighted).

However, the net fee increase to be implemented will be 5.3% in accordance with a national norm.

While several advances have been made to secure laptops for students, the choice of either a laptop or a textbook allowance in any one year of student funding is informed by the policy of NSFAS.

The management committee in early December 2018 considered a report from the Senate Teaching and Learning Committee which outlined a list of qualifications without SAQA IDs and resolved that all these qualifications will not be offered to new students in 2019 but would allow only pipeline students to continue. Unisa will continue to engage with the accreditation bodies to provide SAQA IDs for these qualifications and as soon as these are available, the qualifications will be re-opened and students allowed to register. This matter is receiving priority attention in the university.

Currently NSFAS students receive the following allowances, at Unisa:

• Tuition fees (excluding Aegrotat and supplementary exams)
• Learning material allowance (ongoing allocation) / e-device allocation (once-off) up to a maximum of R5000 for a student registered for a minimum of 3 modules
  • R600 per module for students registered for less than 3 modules
• Allowances for practical portion of qualification (specific qualifications / modules only), including full cost of accommodation and food

In 2018 Council approved the establishment of a central structure for dealing with student queries, called the Student Communication Service Centre (SCSC). The first phase of the SCSC is already operational and is implementing an integrated system for UNISA to manage communication with students and other stakeholders, focusing on query resolution and the management of communication by telephone. Email and social media communication will be incorporated in the subsequent phases of implementation.