Unisa has announced that all mid-year exams (scheduled for May 7 to 18 this year) will also be written from June 18 to 29.
This move is in response to late payment of Unisa fees by NSFAS as well as a problem with the My-Unisa website.
Late payments from NSFAS meant that students did not get study material, or got it very late, or they could not buy textbooks because they did not get their NSFAS book vouchers.
Students also struggled with the myUnisa website. This meant that students could often not submit their assignments online.
On Friday April 27, the myUnisa website displayed this notice about further downtime because of maintenance:
"Due to essential maintenance that needs to be carried out on myUnisa, students will not be able to login to myUnisa for an estimated period of 5 hours on Saturday 28 April 2018, starting at 08:00. This downtime will also affect the iRecruitment website, the Library system (databases), the MOOC website and the Music System."
These frustrations have led to much discussion and anger in various Facebook Student Support Groups, where Unisa students form a community to help each other.
To help students, Unisa has decided to allow all students access to the exams. Students who have already submitted assignments will gain admission based on their year mark. Students who did not submit assignments will also be admitted.
Students who have not submitted assignments can still submit their assignments.
The university will give more information about the extension of the examination period, as well as the updated exam timetables on Friday, May 4
On Facebook, the news is being welcomed by students.
Prospective students wanting to study with Unisa in 2019 have started asking when the application dates for next year will be announced. It looks like the very first dates for 2019 undergraduate applications will be from July 30 to September 21 this year.