
Following a vibrant Welcoming Ceremony on Saturday, where Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sibongile Muthwa welcomed first year students and their families, new students are participating in the Orientation Programme this week. Known as the First Year Success programme, orientation prepares and enlightens students about processes in the University and what is required of them.
Power outage
Summerstrand has experienced a power outage, with no communicated time frame, that affected some operations on campus. This was exacerbated by the loss of generator power to one of the key venues where registration and other admissions-related services are being carried out. The University is hard at work on repairs to the generator and has made contingency plans to ensure processes continue.

Access and enrolment
The University is finalising its admissions processes, with online and assisted registration under way for applicants who have received a firm admission offer.
Monday, 3 February marked the start of the “change of programme” process, where applicants who have not been admitted but meet the requirements for their chosen programme can submit requests to change to an alternate course for which they qualify. Admission will be subject to the institution’s selection processes.
Given the volumes of applicants and space limitations, almost all the University’s programmes are full, and change of programme requests are only open for the few courses that have spaces available.
Students wishing to submit their change of programme requests are urged to do so by visiting https://apps.mandela.ac.za/ChangeOfChoice.
Registration
Online registration opened on 14 January and can be accessed via https://www.mandela.ac.za/Study-at-Mandela/Registration/2025-Registration.
Assisted registration is taking place at the Madibaz Indoor Centre for Gqeberha campuses, and Mopani Hall on George Campus from 3 to 7 February 2025.
Financial Aid
The University’s Financial Aid office is continuing the process of clearing students that the National Students Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has marked as eligible for funding. This enables other processes, such as registration for tuition and residences.
Applications are also open for University financial concessions for students who do not qualify for NSFAS, but whose household income does not exceed R600 000. This concession is a relief mechanism to facilitate access to academic and on-campus residence registration for qualifying, academically deserving students.

Residences
Residences opened on 31 January for first-year students, and will open on Friday, 7 February 2025 for senior students. Only students who have confirmation of a firm offer of acceptance, and have secured financial aid and acceptance for accommodation, should come to campus on the applicable days.
Students are urged to make use of the available online resources aimed at expediting and streamlining access-related processes. This will help minimise the need to visit campus for such.
The University looks forward to an exciting and successful academic year.