Monday motivation: Mphathi Nxumalo talks studying at Unisa

What did you study at Unisa?

I studied communication science.

What did you like about studying at Unisa?

What I liked, actually loved about Unisa, was the strong bonds that were formed from people I studied with. Friendships were formed while I was studied while I was at the institution. These bonds helped us to go through challenging materials and the challenges that life threw us. I am still close with some of the alumni till today. We became more than friends and saw each other as brothers and sisters. I have been to other institutions and have not come across such a spirit. It is an aspect that I believe is much overlooked.

What did you dislike about studying at Unisa?

What I disliked about Unisa at the time I was there, was the lack of the option of internet registration. That has since changed as students are generally encouraged to use this method rather than to have it manually done. It would be great to get more interactions with lecturers as some of the interactions can be quite informative for people who are at satellite campuses. There is something about face to face interaction that social media or any modern day technology cannot capture. It could be the subtle nuances in body language or voice, I don't know. What I do know is that I had great thirst to engage and debate issues with lecturers which could not always be done due to the cost of calling Pretoria etc. On the other hand Unisa is a long distance institution so when one goes to it one should expect lecturers to not be as easily accessible (in terms of one on one interactions) as compared to other institutions.

Why did you choose your particular field of study?

I always had a goal of becoming a journalist and I was told by a lecturer at College that I once attended that doing Communication Science would be a good way to go. Well, I have achieved that goal. What I appreciate about the degree I have was that it gave me a broad outlook not only in terms of the journalism but the media field as a whole. Some of the material I learned from my modules I apply today in the field of journalism and other stuff I learned I will probably apply when I decided to leave the journalism field. But the degree has helped me in more ways than I could express.

How did your studies fit into your working hours?

They figured by developing a sense of rhythm. I am not an early riser so studying before work was out of the question. I made sure that I studied after work for 2-3 hours every day. This helped me to cover a good amount of material without having to lose any sleep. Developing this routine really helped me in the end. I do wish though that I had learned this earlier though. Strangely enough, this advice is given in some study materials but somehow I seemed to have skipped it until my final years there. For young students, I would advise them to thoroughly go through their study material.  There are gems lying there. 

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