Terrible lack in support. Would not recommend.

I am very disappointed in Unisa. I started studying engineering at the beginning of 2022, thinking that Unisa would be a great option for me as someone with a full-time job. I could not have been more wrong. During my first semester, one of my assessment dates changed to a month earlier than it was supposed to be, with only a few days' notice. I was unable to take leave from work on such short notice so I failed my module. Besides that, some of the lecturers either take months to respond to your emails or never respond at all. I had an issue with my invigilator app and sent an email with a screenshot to the lecturer - as I'm supposed to do when experiencing issues - and I am still waiting for a response. It has been a week. This same lecturer also only notifies us which chapters we are writing about the night before the assessment.

It is extremely frustrating, because I am doing everything that I am supposed to do, but how can I plan ahead and keep up with these sudden changes?

I would also like to complain about the treatment all the students and I received at the Parrow campus during registration. I was having issues with my university email account and decided to go in and try to sort it out there - I was not allowed to contact them with my normal email account and they do not pick up the phone - so I went to the campus. I was told they could not help me there and that I must send an email with my university email account to make an appointment and did not even listen to me when I explained that that was the whole problem. There were several other students with similar issues, and instead of trying to help or explain things to us, the staff told all of us to wait in a seperate line to the registration line and left us waiting there until the campus closed. They also started arguing and shouting at people who were 'disrespectful' because they asked if we were going to be assisted at all. I ended up sending an email with my normal email account and they responded 3 months later. (the university email account started working after about 2 weeks)

Overall, it's been a terrible experience studying at Unisa. Some of the lecturers are wonderful and supportive, but there's far too many problems at this institute for it to be worth it.