What's new for 2025?

Unisa is known as a provider of fair and equitable access to higher education opportunities. Flowing from its social responsibility to address past inequalities, Unisa has an application and selection process that effectively addresses historical imbalances without sacrificing quality standards.

This process promotes focused attention towards improved student support, and the alignment of our new student intake with the available academic capacity and required infrastructure to maximise all students’ chances of success.

What does the selection process entail?

Unisa will assess your application according to the academic admission requirements of your qualification(s) of choice and the final mark obtained for your major subjects at third-year undergraduate level. If you do not meet these requirements, your application will be declined. You will be provided with the reason why your application was declined and/or a way forward.

Please note that meeting the minimum admission requirements is not a guarantee that you will be admitted to a higher-level qualification (postgraduate diploma or honours degree), as spaces are limited.

How does the application process work?

• You may apply for a maximum of two qualifications, ranked in order of preference (although you may only register for one should both of your applications be successful).
• You are advised to select two qualifications when submitting your application. Adding a second qualification after you have already submitted your application may cause delays in processing your application. If you applied for one qualification and want to add a second honours degree or postgraduate diploma option, please send an e-mail to pgd@unisa.ac.za 
  Remember to include your student number in the subject line of your e-mail.  
• No amendments are allowed if a student has applied for the maximum of two qualifications or after the application period has closed. 
• Students who obtained qualifications outside the borders of South Africa must have their qualifications evaluated by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA). You may apply for admission without a SAQA certificate of evaluation. If your application for admission to the 2025 academic year is accepted, you may register, but you will be required to submit your SAQA certificate of evaluation by 15 December 2025. To apply for a SAQA certificate of evaluation, please visit https://www.saqa.org.za.
• You may track the status of your application. 
• Unisa will inform you of the outcome of your application.
• Spaces for some qualifications are limited and offers will only be made once all the applications received have been processed. In such cases, your application will be processed and you will be informed that your application for your qualification of choice is subject to enrolment management.
• First-time applicants to Unisa must complete the First-Year Experience MOOC (FYE massive open online course). You will not be able to accept Unisa's offer if you have not yet completed Unisa's free online MOOC.
• You must accept or decline Unisa's offer within the prescribed period of time.
• You may only accept one offer. If you accept an offer, the other application for admission/offer will automatically fall away.
• If you accept Unisa's offer for the 2025 academic year, you may only register for the qualification and specialisation for which you received an offer. You may also only register for the 2025 academic year. Should you decide not to register for the 2025 academic year for any reason, you will need to apply for admission during the next application period.

Who must apply for admission?

Everyone wanting to start a new qualification must apply for admission. This includes

• first-time Unisa applicants.
• Unisa students changing to a new qualification and/or changing the specialisation of a current qualification.
• applicants in their final year of an undergraduate qualification who wish to continue with postgraduate studies.

Please note: You must apply for admission if you previously applied for admission and were offered a space, but did not register for any reason. Should you experience any system error issue when submitting your application, please send an e-mail, together with a screenshot of the error message, to the relevant college e-mail address. Remember to always include your student number in the subject line of your e-mail. 

How to track the status of your application

You can stay informed about the status of your application by checking the status of your application.

If you have been admitted, please accept or decline Unisa's offer.  

If you want to enquire about the following, please send an e-mail to pgd@unisa.ac.za

• You did not receive an offer letter.
  * Returning students are reminded to make use of their myLife e-mail address when corresponding with the university. You will be able to check whether there are any documents outstanding that you need to upload before the closing date for applications.  
• Your status indicates "awaiting results", even though you have already submitted the requested results.