SA Speaking as a civil servant - I object ! Most of my working years have not been in civil service, so I can see both sides. She sounds to me like someone who got the runaround from Pretoria and UNISA. I still haven't heard any explanation for the merger, maybe someone on the forum who is a doctoral student at a SA university can comment. Was it strictly financial or mostly political.
Re: SA I didn't say civil servant expecting no-one to know what I was talking about. South African mergers - strictly political - with racial overtones.
Vista I e-mailed Vista about six months ago and still have not heard from them. Just an inquiry (or is it enquiry there, I can never remember). Dan B
Gotta get on the phone, Jodokk. Once you do--and only if you do--doors will likely swing open. SAns dislike and ignore and consign e-mail to oblivion, love faxes with a slightly odd passion, and will yak your ear off on phone calls with a garrulous friendliness that is the polar opposite of the sorehead tactics of the average US university functionary. Good luck.
I communicated with my dissertation promoter the other day. I asked him if the merger was a result of political or financial constraints. It's political more than financial. The smaller universities like Vista want to incorporate the UNISA name. SA students shouldn't worry too much about this merger. This will eventually work out in the long run. In the mean time, anyone who is involved in DL with SA universities, it's business as usual.
