What most people mean by a Unisa student advisor is the Directorate: Counselling and Career Development, the DCCD. It advises on career decisions, qualification and module choices, study skills and personal difficulties that affect studying, for prospective as well as registered students, and Unisa provides it free of charge. It is a different service from general student enquiries, and it has its own regional offices.
The national route
- Email a counsellor: [email protected]
- Central unit, Sunnyside Pretoria: 012 441 5385, Es-kia Mphahlele registration building, corner Steve Biko and Justice Mahomed Street, Sunnyside
- Online counselling sessions are booked through the DCCD pages and run on Microsoft Teams
- General Unisa enquiries, which is a separate desk: 0800 00 1870 or [email protected]
Use the national mailbox if you are not near a regional centre or your question is not location-specific. Use the regional office if you want to be seen in person.
Gauteng
- Sunnyside, Pretoria: [email protected], 012 444 8700, Building 14 ground floor, corner Steve Biko and Justice Mahomed Street
- Florida Science Campus: 011 670 9542, Phapha building 1st floor 01-019D
- Ekurhuleni: 011 845 9399, David Webstar Building, corner R51 and Brazil Street, Daveyton
- Johannesburg: 011 630 4535, 120 Fox Street, Indoni Building, Marshalltown
Eastern Cape
- East London: [email protected], 043 709 0426 or 0469 or 0468, 10 St Luke Road, Southernwood
- Mthatha: [email protected], 047 504 1311 or 1312 or 1320 or 1325, 32 corner Victoria and York Road
- Gqebergha: Unisa states there is currently no counsellor available on campus and directs students to the online, email and digital resources instead
KwaZulu-Natal
- Durban: [email protected], 031 335 8119, Hoy Park campus, 60 K.E. Masinga Road
- Pietermaritzburg: [email protected], 033 355 1738 or 033 355 1737, 1 Langalibalele Street, Office No 3, New Res Building
Midlands region
- Rustenburg: [email protected], 014 594 8810, 19 Steen Street at the corner of Steen and OR Tambo
- Bloemfontein: [email protected], 051 411 0453, Nobel House, 196 Nelson Mandela Drive, Brandwag
Note the spelling of that regional mailbox. Unisa publishes it with a single l in counseling, unlike the others, so copy it exactly rather than typing it from memory.
North Eastern region
- Polokwane: [email protected], 015 290 3432, 29 Landros Mare Street
- Middelburg: [email protected], 013 243 6930, 26 Bhimy Damane Street
- Nelspruit: [email protected], 013 756 0949 or 013 756 0950, 31 Brown Street, Standard Bank Building
Western Cape
- Parow, Cape Town: [email protected], 021 936 4130 or 021 936 4123, 15 Jean Simonis Street
A note on the named mailboxes
The Unisa page lists individual counsellors by name alongside personal staff mailboxes at each centre. Those are not reproduced here. Write to the office mailbox for the centre instead: it is monitored when a particular counsellor is on leave or has moved on, and a message to a stale personal address is simply never answered.
What to put in a first message
- Your student number if you are registered, or say that you are a prospective student if you are not
- The qualification or the modules you are asking about, by code where you have it
- Whether you want career guidance, module and subject choice advice, or study support, because these go to different specialists
- Whether you want to be seen in person, on Teams, or by email