She says that the welcoming and orientation of students at the Bloemfontein campus will take place on January 21, while on the Qwaqwa campus it will be on January 24. An orientation and information session will take place on the South Campus in Bloemfontein on February 3.

The registration process for first-year students on the Bloemfontein and Qwaqwa campuses who need academic advice will start on January 23 according to a programme. First year students, who feel that they do not need academic advice, can start registering this week. 

Senior students can register online as from today. Senior students who need academic advice can register from January 30 according to a programme.  

The UFS received 42 568 applications for submission in 2017 and aims to register at least 8 500 first year students.

Meanwhile, the North West University’s Potchefstroom and Mafikeng campuses will open this coming weekend, and the Vaal campus the weekend thereafter. Spokesperson Louis Jacobs says the university is preparing to accept around 8 500 students, after having provisionally accepted 17 000 applications.

"The reason for this is to accommodate your normal fallout. A lot of students' matric results are not as good as what they achieved in Grade 11, so automatically we have to accommodate that and make sure that we do make our target. We are confident that with the assistance of all our stakeholders we will once again, as in 2016, be able to start and complete the 2017 academic year on a successful note,” Jacobs added.

The Sol Plaatje University in Kimberley plans on registering 1 200 students, as opposed to the 700 students of the previous year. Vice Chancellor, Professor Yunis Ballim, told OFM News that they are working on the assumption that 600 students will return to continue their studies – factoring in those who completed their courses or dropped out. Ballim adds academic activities will resume in the second week of February.

“We expect to have an orientation programme a week before the academic year starts, but teaching and learning will start in earnest during the second week of February,” Ballim adds.

OFM News