The University of South Africa (Unisa) has announced that it will give new and returning students extra time to register by moving the closing date into February.

The new date will now be 4th February which is a quite an extension over the old closing date of 24th January.

From Unisa’s side there has been little reason given for the extension.

“Registration for semester modules has been extended to 04 February 2022. This date of 04 February 2022, will also be the final date for the minimum payments for the semester modules,” reads the entirety of a short announcement.

Unisa is rather infamous for changing its dates. We’ve seen assignment dates pushed back four times and registration delayed three times in the recent past. Explanations are varied for these changes but, at the very least, it does give students more time.

What about the second semester? 

Unisa caused an uproar when it moved from a two semester per year system to a single semester per year. This caused many problems with students who were also asked to pay more upfront for the whole year instead of being granted the ability to pay for two different semesters.

This also caused problems with registrations but, thankfully, Unisa has rescinded this decision.

“Please note that the 2022 academic year is made up of 2 semesters again. The first semester registration commenced on 4 January and will close on 24 January 2022. Students may also register their modules for semester 2 during this period if they wish to do so, provided there are no pre-requisite requirements for modules,” reads an announcement from earlier this month.

That 24th January date, as discussed above, is no longer valid.

As for the second semester registration will open for it on 20th June and close on 18th July. Given Unisa’s history of changing registration dates we wouldn’t be surprised if this moves too.