Attendees of the Registrar’s Summit
Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Prof Bernard Nthambeleni, officially opened the summit with a com-pelling address that underscored the centrality of sound academic administration to effective governance and strategic planning. He reflected on the tangible progress made since the 2024 Lekgotla, particularly the development of a home-grown student administration system that has enhanced process efficiency and data integrity. Prof Nthambeleni addressed ongoing institutional challenges, including admissions, enrolment management, curriculum reviews, student accommo-dation, and internationalisation. He urged delegates to apply academic rules consistently, uphold rigorous standards, and ensure accountability, especially in light of recent structural and staffing investments. Commending achievements in postgraduate enrolments and systems development, he encouraged continued momentum, collaboration, and shared ownership of the university’s mission to cultivate future leaders through inclusive, high-quality education.
Delivering the purpose of the summit, University Registrar Dr Joel Baloyi (on the left picture) emphasised the importance of governance rules in ensuring institutional efficiency, impartiality, and accountability. He framed the summit within the context of the rapidly evolving higher education landscape, shaped by digitalisation, artificial intelligence, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Highlighting UNIVEN’s strides, such as the transition to cloud-based systems, Dr Baloyi called for a definitive shift from outdated manual practices. He positioned the summit as a vital opportunity to reshape academic policies, particularly the General Rules and Regulations (G-Rules) and Promo-tional Criteria for students, to better reflect the university’s strategic trajectory.
Dr Baloyi urged inclusive participation throughout the summit’s deliberations, reiterating that ev-ery voice matters in driving lasting institutional change.
Prof Modimowabarwa Kanyane (on the left photo) presented an overview of the 2024 Registrar’s Lekgotla recommendations, which aimed to resolve key challenges across four priority areas: academic structures and student appeals; applications, admissions, and registration; financial aid and student accommodation; and the academic calendar, including teaching, examinations, and graduations.
Among the key proposals was the need for Deputy Deans: Teaching and Learning to play a more active role in verifying academic structures for alignment with faculty calendars and the Higher Education Management Information System (HEMIS). There was also a call to improve the fairness and consistency of the academic exclusions and appeals process, enhance the accessibility of un-dergraduate and postgraduate application systems, and streamline registration processes to pro-mote timely enrolment. Further recommendations emphasised the importance of improving coor-dination between financial aid and accommodation units to reduce administrative delays, refining timetabling to prevent scheduling conflicts, modernising graduation workflows, and strengthening assessment integrity across the board. Collectively, these proposals were designed to reinforce academic governance, elevate the student experience, and enhance institutional efficiency.
Prof Tharien van der Walt (left picture) provided a detailed update on the implementation of these recommendations. She reported considerable progress in the ongoing revision of the General Academic Rules (G-Rules) and the Main Calendar. The revisions are intended to eliminate outdated provisions, resolve inconsistencies, and align policies with current institutional structures and national regulations. Specific areas of improvement included the removal of obsolete calendar content,restructuring of the G-Rules into clearer thematic categories, refining admissions and assessment protocols, and clarifying policies on credit transfers, extraordinary examinations, and academic exclusions. Importantly, the review aims to phase out manual promotion practices and establish clearer faculty-based decision-making processes. These reforms are integral to strengthening aca-demic integrity, operational efficiency, and student support.
In a related presentation, Prof Lutendo Murulana highlighted progress made in integrating financial aid and student accommodation processes. Building on resolutions from the 2024 Lekgotla, he noted successful initiatives such as early NSFAS funding confirmations for SASSA beneficiaries, improved communication via institutional emails, and the unblocking of students based on verified funding status.
Looking ahead to 2026, proposed enhancements include the automation of funding and residence processes, the integration of residence applications with academic admissions, and the enhance-ment of Fundi’s platform to provide greater transparency in off-campus housing. The presentation also underscored the importance of setting enrolment quotas for bursary-linked programmes and promoting the timely registration of returning students to ensure readiness for the new academic cycle.
Mahlatse Shokane’s presentation focused on the current challenges and proposed improvements in the application, admission, and registration processes for international students. Key concerns included the absence of document upload functionality in the online application system, delayed and inconsistent communication with applicants, and the lack of system-generated admission and rejection letters. Furthermore, registration processes do not yet account for international student quotas as required by the Department of Higher Education and Training. Proposed solutions included enabling document uploads, embedding quota requirements into system workflows, implementing automated email and pop-up notifications, introducing a chatbot for applicant support, and ensuring alignment with governance timelines for both undergraduate and postgraduate admissions. These efforts aim to strengthen internationalisation and enhance UNIVEN’s appeal to global applicants.
Other presentations included Timetabling, lecturing, examinations, and graduations, which were presented by Mr Azwindini Mulaudzi. The Rules for Postgraduate degrees and Regulations in re-spect of student disciplinary actions were presented by Prof Takalani Mashau and Adv Thanyani Mphephu, respectively.
The second day of the summit focused on the review of regulations through breakaway sessions
chaired by Dr Sannah Mativandlela and Prof Takalani Mashau. Facilitated discussions on the Gen-eral Rules and Promotional Criteria allowed participants to engage deeply with proposed revisions.
Due to time constraints and other logistical considerations, the outcomes from the breakaway ses-sions were partially presented during the summit. As a result, it was agreed that the Office of the University Registrar will convene a follow-up session on a later date, during which the outstanding areas would be adequately considered.
Attendees included Directors and Heads within the Registrar’s Division, Executive Deans, Deputy Deans, Faculty Managers and Administrators, the Institutional Research and Planning (IRP) team, Internal Audit, Financial Aid, ICT, Marketing, Branding and Communication, Legal Services, and oth-er critical academic and administrative units. Their collaborative contributions reflected a unified commitment to institutional renewal and academic transformation. Through this inclusive and strategic engagement, the 2025 Registrar’s Summit reaffirmed UNIVEN’s dedication to fostering an enabling academic environment, responsive governance, and a student-focused approach to higher education. The summit concluded with a renewed collective determination to advance the university’s mission and embrace innovation as a vehicle for meaningful, long-term change.
Attendees on the first day of the Registrar’s Summit
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