Registering online risky
AT the beginning of each university year, our parents must meet the cost required for us to register for the upcoming academic year.
The cost of registration at NMMU for degree programmes, postgraduate diplomas and occasional studies is R6 200 on a full-time basis and R3 500 for part-time studies. R4 300 is payable for diploma and certificate programmes, BTech, MTech, DTech and MBA programmes, and R2 800 part-time for the same programmes.
In the first year of registration, the fee covers advice from lecturers as to what modules they think you should take, the cost of your student card, and a pile of information including e-mail etiquette, code of conduct, dress code, timetables and module venues.
To lessen the costs and inconvenience of travelling from our homes in Bloemfontein, Durban, or even East London for a single day of registering, we are given the opportunity to register online from our second year. As great as it sounds, registering at home leaves everything up to us with no explanations of what modules we cannot select for whatever reason.
We learn from our first year that we are able to liaise with lecturers, programme coordinators and receive general information via e-mail, but who do we e-mail during the registration period? The registration website lists all the modules available for the course as an entirety, rather than only modules we have to continue with until we graduate. After completing a module – assignments, lectures and writing the exam – you find out that it does not count as one of the modules you should have done to complete your degree.
I’m not sure about the students in other departments, but I speak mainly about the BA Media, Communication and Culture course, which is fairly new to NMMU. Some students will have completed well over the required 360 credits, because of having to change modules over and over again.
We should get the same amount of information through online registration as someone who registers at the university on the day of registration: a pdf of the information forms. I amnow in third year, which is the year we decide what stream we are taking. Some of us are not happy with the idea of changing our stream choices due to not having met the prerequisites for that particular module – and then there is the added cost.
Perhaps a solution should be drawn up to improve on the process?