telephone is the answer for admissions service

Frustrated with delays and curt/form letter responses from UNISA I called UNISA. Night and day difference. I can recommend that anyone who needs questions answered fast or in detail to forget about email and use the phone.

By phone everyone I have talked with has been courteous, professional and helpful. And their English is fluent. They don't speak only Afrikkans (sp?)

And it was better for me too. My tone becomes more polite and patient when using the phone because I am dealing direct with a human being. Obviously in person visits would allow even more communication tools (for example body language) but this *is* distance education.

International phone calls used to be horrendously expensive from Vietnam. Now the netphone services are much cheaper and clearer than a few years ago when this technology first came out. They are probably technically illegal (the government of Cambodia recently closed down operators) since they compete with the state monopoly, but here in Saigon and now at least they are available.

Perhaps fax is better than email as a written medium since it is more physical. And fax is no longer the hassle and expense it used to be. First there are 'faxaway' and similar net version of email to fax. I am out of date with the current best value services. Second, although I am a bit of a luddite I am getting used to scanning and emailing instead of faxing. This saves a bundle.

 

less bitching, plus photos

http://marksykes.netfirms.com/unisa/unisa.html

Mark Sykes documents his experiences with UNISA.

 

Hi Hermes: I've said this before about dealing with South Africa, and not just UNISA. Get on the phone! South Africans are fonder of faxes than are Americans, but less responsive to e-mail (due to expense, in part). Phone calls, however, work wonders in producing gracious responses and effective follow-through.

Should any other posters fear the expense of doing business this way, remember how much you are saving on tuition costs because of the currency exchange rate. I think I pay (from the US)either 35 or 50 cents per minute to call SA; if you can't spring $15 for a half-hour conversation with personnel important to your future degree, then you probably have financial needs more pressing than spending any money on DL.

As to the language issue, it's pretty rare in university circles to find personnel who are not fluent in English, even if it's not their home language. You will not encounter the least inability or unwillingness to speak English from Afrikaans-speaking staff and professors. Depending on your ear, you just may find the English of a basically non-Anglophone South African easier to understand on the phone. American and Anglophone South African "accents" are sufficiently different to call for a double-check on what's said in a phone conversation, just to make sure that you understand and are being understood.

Of course, all of the above is predicated (as you exemplified) upon an inquirer's decent phone manners.

 

Greetings.

A small addendum to "Uncle Janko"'s previous post:
Depending upon your (US) phone service, a phone call to South Africa might be far more expensive than thirty to fifty cents. If you don't have a discount international calling plan, the cost might be more than $5.00 a minute (as I recall)!

Check the cost before you dial!


Cordially,
Richard Kanarek
Who once helped World Com/MCI out of their bankruptcy <g>