Students at the University of South Africa (Unisa) have been given an extension to pay for their modules and ensure that they are set to begin the 2022 academic year.

Previously payments needed to have been done by 4th February, which itself was an extension from 31st January. Unisa has a long and sordid past of moving dates around multiples times like this, so the news isn’t too surprising.

“Please note that the closing date for payments for Undergraduate semester modules has been extended to 17 February 2022. Students are kindly reminded to make payment into the university account using the correct details as provided by the university.  This will result in the payment being allocated timeously on the side of the university and the timely finalisation of registration. The payment details can be found on the Unisa website: www.unisa.ac.za/paymentinfo,” an announcement reads.

“If you have made your payment but your registration has not yet been finalised, you may contact the university with your proof of payment at enquire@unisa.ac.za.”

While no official reason has been provided in this announcement about the extension, it’s not difficult to see why it is necessary.

Unisa had recently extended its registration into February, with the last day to do so now 4th February. It makes sense that those who registered late are now afforded extra time to sort out their payments.

Also recently the university alerted users to an error inside of the myNSFAS student portal which may have accidentally displayed incorrect information about academic performance and funding. We have to imagine that this also caused problems for students funded through NSFAS who are studying at Unisa.

Regardless of the exact reason any extra time is welcome, especially with many students making mention of registration finalisation problems in response to this new date.