#Unisa Vision: 2020 applications in Zululand

During the past weeks, Unisa has been visiting some far-flung towns in KwaZulu-Natal, from Kokstad to Ulundi located in the heritage-rich Zululand district, encouraging prospective students to apply for admission for the 2020 academic year.  

#UNISA Vision 2020.

On 13 and 14 September 2019, the Department of Institutional Advancement (DIA), in conjunction with the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Communications Department, took the 2020 applications period awareness campaign to Ulundi, a town that once was the capital of the mighty Zulu Kingdom.

Prospective students vising Unisa stand and making inquiries.

This marketing drive was a continuation of the series of such drives taking place in the KZN region and other regions of the country. The campaign encouraged prospective students to apply to study at Unisa in 2020. Past experience has shown that at the beginning of each academic year, there is an influx of walk-in prospective students who come to Unisa’s offices enquiring about registration, without having applied the previous year. This campaign informed the public that prospective students must apply in 2019 if they wish to study at Unisa in 2020. Another observation regarding current and prospective students in rural areas showed that the majority of people enquired and were interested in education and teaching programmes. Clearly, there is a need for institutions of higher learning to communicate frequently and effectively with all university stakeholders, especially prospective students. There is also a need to inform the public about open distance e-learning (ODeL) institutions like Unisa, since some prospective students evidently do not understand the difference between ODeL institutions and residential universities.

In Ulundi, the applications awareness campaign was held at a busy shopping centre, where more than 200 people approached our marketing stand, requesting information about the programmes offered at Unisa and what the minimum requirements are to study there. In addition, several current students came to discuss their student administration challenges, and they appreciated having Unisa representatives in their hometown.

This campaign was again a huge success, running from morning until afternoon on both days. The general public and local government officials indicated that they could do with more activities of this nature in their town as it is in the middle of KwaZulu-Natal, far from major urban areas.

By Siyabonga Seme, Manager: Communications, KZN Region