Humanities online registration falls short

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Published on Tuesday, 14 February 2012 00:00

Written by Olivia Wainwright

In January, UCT’s Humanities faculty  offered  its online registration  for the second consecutive year. Students were hopeful that this online process would enable them to enjoy a speedier registration than in previous years.

A Vula tab titled “undergraduate registration” allowed eligible students to choose from a range of online forms that could then be submitted. However, many found problems when using the forms. The online chat room was host to many users expressing problems with their applications. 

Joss Stevens, a third-year Humanities student, said, “I spent about an hour and a half just trying to send through my forms … some people’s submissions didn’t go through, such as mine … I ended up spending the same amount of time again in normal registration.”

Laureen Rautenbach, Humanities Faculty Manager, explained that technical problems “may have related to the operating system the students were using – apparently Apple [computers] did not interface well with the university's registration 

upload site.”

Others students were unaware of the online registration process. Emma Hosking, a third-year BSocSci student, said, “I found that the online registration was not clearly advertised – by the time I came to register online I realised there was a date by which the form had to be submitted, and I 

was unfortunately too late.”

Some students, however, found that the online registration worked for them. Andreas Hadjiyannis said, “I only have positive things to say about the online registration process. All in all, registration took an hour and required minimal effort, which was a process that usually took several hours and was frustrating for all involved.”

Few students registered online according to Rautenbach, who believed this was because students were “not aware of it, as they did not use their UCT email addresses to which the notice had been sent; others had heard of friends experiencing problems and didn't think it was worth the effort.”

The Humanities faculty is aware of problems around the process, as Dr Karen van Heerden, Deputy Registrar, explained: “For the future we are looking at a self-service online functionality for students who are fully within the rules.”