Who must apply?

• Everyone wanting to start a new qualification must apply for admission. This includes first-time Unisa applicants and Unisa students changing to a new qualification.
• Everyone completing a Higher Certificate or Alternative Pathway / Extended Programme must apply for admission to the follow-on qualification.
• You must re-apply for admission if you previously applied for admission and received feedback, but did not register for any reason.
• Everyone planning to enrol for classes at a Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) college under the Unisa-TVET agreement must apply for admission.

Check your documents & confirm that you are ready to apply

Please note that if you don’t meet the exact requirements listed below, your application will be declined and you will have to re-apply during the next application period.

 I am sure…

• that Open Distance Learning (ODL) and Unisa are for me
• about my career
• that I have chosen the correct Unisa qualification(s) for my career choice
• that I meet the statutory and college admission requirements for my qualification(s) of choice
• that I have a valid e-mail address and cellphone number, and I accept that Unisa will communicate with me during the application process using this e-mail address and cellphone number. Please ensure that you provide only one e-mail address and one cellphone number during the application process.

 I have the following documents scanned & uploaded to an electronic device

All applicants starting a new qualification must upload all the required documents:

• Copy of your school qualifications (eg Senior Certificate)
• Copy of your official tertiary academic record(s) (if applicable) (internet copies will not be accepted)
• Copy of your ID document (RSA students) or ID / passport (international students)
• Copy of your marriage certificate (if applicable) or divorce decree (if applicable)
• Sworn translations of documents if they are not in English or Afrikaans

*Some qualifications may require additional documents. Unisa reserves the right to request original documents and / to verify the correctness of submitted documents at any time. Submitting fraudulent documents is an offence in terms of the Student Disciplinary Code.

 I am sure that my documents are scanned according to the rules

Follow the instructions carefully when completing the online application process. Only upload the required documents as individual files and not a complete set of documents as one file.

• Files are not larger than 2MB (2048KB) each.
• Only black and white documents may be submitted.
• Only the following file types are allowed: PDF (Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format file), DOC (Word document file) or TIF (image file)

Based on Unisa’s application and selection process, you will not automatically be accepted to study through Unisa in 2025/2026 even if you meet the general academic admission requirements for a qualification.

Unisa will assess your application, which includes the points score system. You may be offered a space for 2025/2026 based on the following: whether you meet the academic admission requirements for your qualification of choice, your minimum points score and the number of places available for the qualification for which you have applied.