GEORGE NEWS - The highly disgruntled mother of a Unisa student from George complained to the George Herald that her daughter, who passed all her exams at Unisa last year, cannot be considered for any posts as she is waiting for the required auditing of her qualification.

She obtained a teaching qualification. "No school will consider appointing my daughter until such time as her degree has been audited and verified, a process that has to be completed within two months after the announcement of the exam results. It is now overdue. We have tried phoning various campuses, but are unable to obtain any information regarding where the process is at or when we can expect the audit to be completed," said the mother, who wants to remain anonymous.

Delaying factors
Francois Louw, Western Cape communications manager of Unisa, said the auditing process can sometimes take longer than estimated. This is due to a very high number of audits that need to be done while the registering of students and sorting out of new application issues all have to be addressed at the same time, with limited staff. It will also depend on the specific student's situation.

He said after the official release of examination results, the university prints record cards for all students with sufficient credits. Each record is checked three times - by an advisor, signed off by a supervisor, and then sent to quality assurance to sign it off a third time. All aspects of the student's history are verified and checked.

"Once all three aspects of a student's record have been checked and verified, the hard copy (academic) record card is sent from the directorate of student administration and registration to the actual graduations department. The record card is a secure document. Once the graduations department receives the card - audited and signed off - the qualification status is changed from 'final year' to 'complete'. Only then does the student get a completion statement which invites the student to the graduation ceremony," said Louw.

In some cases - especially in the teaching curriculum - some of the practical results are allocated very late, which means in essence that a module is outstanding. "There might be incorrect module combinations, issues with the student's personal details, or issues with her admission documents."

No mistakes
Louw said it is standard practice to complete the audit process within two months after announcement of the exam results if there are no "complications", which frequently occur. This adds to the time needed to finalise an audit.

"No university can afford to have mistakes made with graduation information as this might affect the reputation of both the student and the university in the future." Teaching students who have issues regarding the auditing process, can contact the College of Education directly at educare@unisa.ac.za. After the college has verified completion, the graduations department can be e-mailed at gaudeamus@unisa.ac.za.

"The Unisa George Centre or the Cape Town Campus can also verify whether the audit process is still in process or whether it has been forwarded to the graduations department, but not how far the progress is in each case."

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