Unisa publishes no dedicated refunds telephone number and no refunds mailbox. What it publishes instead is a form and a documented process, and a refund is granted on the paperwork rather than on a phone call. Getting the documents right first time is the whole job.
Where to start
- Unisa toll-free enquiries: 0800 00 1870, Monday to Friday 08:00 to 19:00 and Saturday 08:00 to 14:00
- General email: [email protected]
- The refund request form, and a separate version for international students, are downloadable from the Unisa payment methods and banking details page
- myUnisa, for your account statement showing the credit balance
Check the statement before anything else. A refund only exists if there is a credit balance on your study fee account, and what feels like an overpayment is often an unallocated payment that was captured against the wrong reference.
The rules that decide whether you get a refund at all
- Requests must be made in writing and signed by the registered student
- No refund is allowed for a credit balance under R100
- Application and miscellaneous fees are non-refundable, including if you decide not to study or do not qualify for admission
- Self-paying students are allowed a maximum of two refunds processed per academic year
- Refunds are paid by EFT, and processing takes up to 15 working days from receipt of a complete request
That fifteen-day clock starts when the documents are complete, not when you first submitted. An incomplete request does not begin the count.
What must accompany the form
- The completed and signed refund request form
- Proof of payment from every party contributing to the credit balance, including bank statements where the payment was made by card on the Unisa web payment platform
- Confirmation of banking details: a bank statement or bank letter carrying an official bank stamp, for the student, sponsor, company or parent as applicable
- A copy of the identity document or passport of both the student and the payee
If the money is to go to somebody other than you
This is where most requests stall. If a parent, sponsor or company paid the fees and the refund is to go to them, you must also submit a letter from that party authorising the refund and stating the amount, and a valid company registration document if the payee is a company. Where a sponsor or bursary paid more than the total study fees, Unisa refunds the excess to that sponsor or bursary rather than to the student, whatever the student would prefer.
Getting the payment reference right in the first place
Most refund requests exist because a payment went astray, and the cause is almost always the reference. Unisa asks for your 8-digit student number, a space, then your allocation number as the reference. It also states that incomplete or incorrect payment information will not be processed and that it will not be held liable for the resulting delay. No Unisa office accepts cash or cheques and there are no cashier services, so payments go by bank deposit or online channel only.
Use the banking details published on the Unisa payment methods page itself and nowhere else, and confirm them on that page each time rather than reusing details from an old email. Fee-payment fraud aimed at students works by supplying a substituted account number in a message that otherwise looks right.
One more thing worth knowing
Unisa states that it reserves the right not to render services to students with outstanding balances, and that receipts and statements are issued to registered students only, with the student responsible for passing them to a sponsor. So a sponsor chasing proof of payment has to get it through the student, not directly from the university.