Admission requirements

Professional nurses with an appropriate bachelor honours degree or an appropriate postgraduate diploma, or Professional nurses who completed a 4 year basic nursing degree programme or, Professional nurses with a 4 year basic nursing diploma programme or, Professional nurses who completed a 3 year basic nursing diploma with an additional qualification in a post basic field such as Nursing Education, Nursing Management, Community Nursing or any clinical field, and applicants should have obtained an average mark of at least 60% for the latest professional qualification and In the absence of an honours degree or a postgraduate diploma the applicant will be required to complete a one year research methodology module at post graduate level e.g. MNURS1E or PPH4805 (Theory and principles of Health Research) for NDP before he/she will be allowed to register for the research proposal module. In addition to the above requirements, applicants must submit a transcript or an academic record, as well as a document describing their intended research. Students will be accepted on the following criteria:
Suitability and viability of the intended research;
Adequate supervisory capacity and research expertise in the discipline or department.
An approved selection procedure which is in line with Unisa’s policies on equality and diversity in the discipline or department.

Research master’s degree

A research master’s degree comprises either a single advanced research project, culminating in the production and acceptance of a dissertation, or a research proposal module (where the outcome is an acceptable research proposal on a research topic). Once this module is finalised, the student may then proceed to register for the research component (ie a dissertation).

Please note: Once you have passed all the modules, but fail the research proposal module, you will not be permitted to continue with the qualification.

Research focus areas

Click here to view a list of departments and research focus areas for the College of Human Sciences.

Research outline

Unisa’s admission policy has changed and you are now required to submit a detailed research outline for each master’s and doctoral qualification for which you apply. No application submitted without a detailed research outline will be considered. Although this research outline may differ for each qualification or academic department, the basic information required is as follows:

• Title
• Summary of topic
• Short literature review
• Expected contribution of the study
• Methodology to be followed
• Availability of the data
• List of references
• Reasons why you are interested in the topic

Plagiarism of any form is unacceptable. Please take note of Unisa’s Policy for Copyright Infringement and Plagiarism.

Student fees and funding your studies

Application fee

Pay the online application fee of R105,00 once you have received your Unisa student number. Please note that the application fee is non-refundable even if you decide not to study through Unisa or do not qualify for admission to Unisa.

Click here for student funding.

Apply for a student number and apply for admission

Who must apply for a Unisa student number?

• You must apply for a Unisa student number if you have never before studied towards a formal qualification at Unisa. Student numbers issued for Unisa’s short learning programmes are not valid for formal qualifications. Your formal Unisa student number will be your permanent Unisa student number.
• If you are applying for admission to a Graduate School of Business Leadership (GSBL) qualification, please apply for a Unisa student number and pay the application fee, unless you previously studied at Unisa towards a formal qualification.
• If you are applying for admission to a selection degree, you must apply for a Unisa student number if you have never before studied towards a formal qualification at Unisa. If you do not have a formal Unisa student number and are selected for admission to one of the selection degrees, you will not be able to register for the 2026 academic year.
• Please ensure that you apply for a Unisa student number, apply for admission and upload all the supporting documents during the application period.

Please note:

• You do not need re-apply for a student number if you already have a student number for a formal qualification.
• No application for admission to the 2026 academic year will be processed without a valid student number.
• You do not need to pay the application fee if you already have a student number for a formal qualification.
• An application for a Unisa student number is NOT an application for admission to a qualification.

How to apply for a Unisa student number

• Apply online for a student number for a formal qualification at Unisa.
• Pay the non-refundable application fee of R105,00 (some exceptions may apply). Your application for a student number will only be finalised upon receipt of the application fee. The application fee is non-refundable even if you decide not to study through Unisa or do not qualify for admission to your qualification of choice.
• Upload a copy of your ID / passport.

Who should apply for admission?

• Everyone wanting to start a new master’s or doctoral degree must apply for admission. This includes
  • first-time Unisa applicants
  • Unisa students changing to a new qualification
  • applicants in their final year of a postgraduate diploma, honours degree or master’s degree who wish to continue with further postgraduate studies
• You must re-apply for admission if you previously applied for admission to a master’s or doctoral degree and received feedback, but did not register for any reason.
• You must re-apply for admission if you are a previously registered master’s or doctoral student, but did not register for the 2026 academic year and now wish to continue with master’s or doctoral studies in 2026. This excludes students who applied for and were granted a formal deferment.

How to apply for admission

1. Apply online for a student number for a formal qualification at Unisa (if applicable).
2. Pay the non-refundable application fee of R105,00 (some exceptions may apply). Your application for a student number will only be finalised upon receipt of the application fee. The application fee is non-refundable even if you decide not to study through Unisa or do not qualify for admission to your qualification of choice.
3. Apply for admission
4. Upload your supporting documents (academic records from other universities, research outline, CV or additional information as specified in the departmental research focus areas)

Application dates: 10 September – 23 November 2026 with the exceptions listed below

You may apply for the following qualifications outside the prescribed application dates:

Registration

Only students whose application for admission was approved and re-registering students (who made sufficient progress during the current academic year) will be allowed to register online within the approved registration period for the 2026 academic year. No printed registration forms will be accepted.

Click here for registration information.

Curriculum