University of South Africa (UNISA) is amongst the largest educational institutions in Mzansi. The university was established in Cape Town in 1873 as University of the Cape of Good Hope but few years later it’s changed into University of South Africa.

 

Former university student went viral on twitter after she tweeted “My name is Lebogang Chantel Modiba and I’m a psychology graduate. In 2020 I applied for a Honours Degree in psychology at UNISA to further my studies in becoming a qualified Psychologist as one must have a masters degree in order to become qualified.

In February after being accepted for my Honours I applied for Unisa Honours Bursary due to not having any funds. In March before the lockdown I checked my portal and found out that I was registered and started my academic year.

I assumed that my bursary had been approved as everything was paid for. Throughout the lockdown year I experienced no issues till I wrote my exams, passed and was issued my graduate certificate in April 2021.

A few months after graduating I started getting demands that I should pay 23 thousand that I owe for fees with a specific account number. My thought was that ‘’Universities will never release your results and your graduate certificate if you owe them fees’’

I thought of it as a scam and continued to apply for my masters which I received no reply to regarding the outcome of my application. This was not alarming to me as it’s very difficult to get in to a psychology masters programme in South Africa.

However after getting persistent demands for me to pay I went to Unisa to check if indeed i had outstanding fees. To my surprise I found out from them that my Honours Bursary was never approved therefore, I need to pay 23k for the degree.