Seychellois students who wish to follow University of South Africa (Unisa) courses will be able to register starting on December 1, the Ministry of Education and Youth (MEY) has announced.

The announcement follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding recently by principal secretary (PS) Macsuzie Mondon and Unisa Vice-Chancellor Barney Pityana in South Africa.

Professor Louis Molamy, who is the registrar of Unisa, said this on Monday November 17,  before his departure at Seychelles International Airport. 

Professor Molamy was in the country to finalise enrolment arrangements now that MEY has become the coordinating organisation for all distance and open learning courses in the country.

“Enrolment forms will be available at the Ministry’s Mont Fleuri offices,” the professor told Nation.

He said whereas the degree programmes offered by Unisa in many fields are universally accepted, they cost much less than they would if a student were to follow them through residential programmes.

“We charge only 480 rands per module, so a three-year programme with 30 modules would cost 14,400 rands," he said.  "A similar course taken in residence at a university costs about 30,000 rands.”

Porfessor Molamy added that Unisa will identify Seychellois supervisors who will work with South Africa-based lecturers to oversee practical work of the students locally. He said the supervisors will be remunerated by Unisa.

Unisa’s distance learning students, Professor Molamy said, communicate with their lecturers through the written word, e-mail and telephone, “but due to students’ desire to meet their lecturers, we also arrange sessions of short duration during which students and lecturers meet at the University in South Africa.

“Interactions usually take place during weekends, so a Seychellois can even combine his or her consultation with a holiday,” he said.

When launching the new policy for distance education last Friday, Minister Danny Faure of MEY said distance and open education provides affordable access to further education for small and remote societies like Seychelles, where universities cannot be justified.

Nevertheless, Professor Molamu said even countries like Kenya that have many universities are turning to Unisa when they cannot cater for their entire student population.

“We are even in the process of starting a degree course in agriculture in partnership with Kenya’s  Egertou University,” he added.

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