11 May 2020

Dear Students

This week we are grateful to report back on good news, specifically related to your connectivity and online learning platform. Management, academic staff and our professional and administrative support divisions are aware of some frustrations and concerns among our students and we have been working non-stop to address the most pressing challenges. We will continue to do so.  Step by step we are making very good progress to ensure that you can complete this academic year.

SUNLearn has grown!  

SUNLearn can now handle all the load from students working online. The SUNLearn system was upgraded over the weekend of 1 May and is now capable of dealing with the volume of users and data resulting from the lock-down conditions. After the upgrade, the system was tested with available loads far exceeding the expected volumes and it performed well without any noticeable degradation. 

SUNLearn is now used by as many as 21 000 users daily and managed a peak of 3 234 users at one point in time on Friday 8 May with ease. Assessments with as many as 1 700 students in a single module were completed without any difficulty with SUNLearn or its servers.  

All SUNLearn data is zero-rated by CellC, MTN, Telkom and Vodacom in South Africa, so students will not have any data cost when using SUNLearn for writing assessments, downloading content or uploading assignments. This means that there is no longer any excuse for not using SUNLearn or not completing an assessment or assignment online.

If a SUNLearn page redirects you to another website, such as YouTube, it might however incur data costs. For this reason, Stellenbosch University (SU) has decided to buy data bundles for students.  

Data bundles

SU will again purchase data bundles from MTN, Vodacom, Telkom* and CellC in South Africa for students for June 2020 (excluding Military Academy students, students still in residences, short course students and postdoctoral fellows).

All students have to take note of the following: to qualify for the June data bundle, you have to confirm your mobile telephone number on your personal details page (update your contact details here), even if you registered successfully for the May data bundle. To confirm, you must click on the Update Information button at the bottom of the page and check that the notice reflects the date on which you updated. Only the mobile telephone numbers that were confirmed during the period from 15 May up until 17:00 on 22 May 2020 will be forwarded to the mobile network operators for data bundles to be loaded.

IMPORTANT: If your mobile telephone number is not confirmed exactly as indicated above, you will not receive a data bundle for June 2020 and no exceptions can be made.

* *Please note that if Telkom-R is indicated on your cell phone, the Telkom bundles will not be valid. Click here for details as to what is offered on each of the mobile network operators.

We are aware that some Telkom users did not receive their data for May 2020. SU has made arrangements for this to be rectified and you will receive your data bundles by Wednesday this week.

As mentioned in the previous communique, no further correspondence will be entered into with regard to the May data bundles. All students have the advantage that SUNLearn data is zero-rated. Please follow the instructions for the June data bundles precisely.

Laptop delivery

To date 1 223 laptops have been delivered and a further 159 laptops are out for delivery this week. If you accepted the loan laptop offer and have not received any confirmation as to when you will receive it, urgently send a screenshot of the SMS where you accepted the loan laptop to [email protected] if you have not done so already. SU is following up with individual students as each situation arises.

This has been a challenging project because both the computer and courier companies are operating under lockdown restrictions with skeleton staff. In addition, some of the details provided by students have necessitated follow-up emails to clarify delivery addresses. Some students have also moved since providing a delivery address, provided incomplete delivery addresses or are not available when the deliveries are made. These situations have necessitated follow-up deliveries by the couriers, delaying the project significantly.

Student fees 2020

Under the lockdown regulations announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa, all students in university accommodation had to return home before midnight on 26 March 2020. The lockdown was subsequently extended until 30 April 2020 and from 1 May the risk adjustment moved the country to a level 4 lockdown, still prohibiting the return of students to university and college campuses.

At SU the payment cycle for study and accommodation fees determines that 75% of the total amount (minus the first instalment paid at registration) is due at the end of May every year. The final payment is due in September.

While implementing online learning and teaching, and continuing to provide support to our students who have remained behind in our residences and in private accommodation, the various work streams of the Institutional Committee for Business Continuity (ICBC) have been hard at work, planning for the possible scenarios that may play out over the coming months.

As many uncertainties remain, especially regarding the return of students to university residences, SU is currently giving urgent consideration to possible discounts on accommodation fees. Arrangements in this regard will be announced within the next week.

As SU is aware that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about wide-spread financial hardship, the following payment relief measures have been implemented: 

• For those unable to meet the May and September payment dates, a payment arrangement can be made for monthly instalments for the rest of 2020. This alternative payment arrangement will be applicable to 2020 only and all fees will be payable before 2020 graduation for final-year students or before further registration for 2021. 
• Whereas interest at prime rate is normally levied on arrear accounts, no interest will be payable for the four-month period from 01 April until 31 July 2020.
• No levies will be charged currently for parking, societies, sport clubs, and residence and PSO activities as this will be determined and billed according to actual usage when there is more certainty about this.

All students will receive further information and contact details with the accounts distributed for May 2020 during the following week. 

June test and examination timetables

The timetables for the first and second examination opportunities in June are available on the SU website.

VERY IMPORTANT!  Please take note of the following regarding the starting times of the online assessments during the upcoming June examination period:

• To avoid too many users logging in to SUNLearn simultaneously, the starting times of assessments have been amended.
• Please check the starting time of YOUR assessments timeously and accurately, as it appears on your timetable on the website. Click here for your timetable.
• If you experience difficulties with access to SUNLearn, please contact: 021 808 2222 or  http://learnhelp.sun.ac.za

In conclusion

As we have mentioned before, this current situation is as unfamiliar to the institution as it is to each of our students. Your extended recess period has since run into the realities and responsibilities of the second term, and the initial novelty of the lockdown has most probably worn off by now. I would like to assure you that SU, from within its higher education mandate, will pull out all stops to ensure that you do not lose an academic year due to this pandemic. Situations will not be perfect nor ideal; challenges and stumbling blocks will arise; after all, we are dealing with the unknown, but it is not insurmountable as long as we take co-responsibility. Let's take up this challenge together.

All of this may become overwhelming, but remember that various support services are available to our students even under lockdown. Please refer to the COVID-19 website  for information.

Like the rest of the country, all universities are functioning in accordance with lockdown regulations. Irrespective of any announcements made over the coming weeks or months, students should only return to our campuses once they have received official communication from Stellenbosch University in this regard. Even when restrictions are lifted, SU will have to prepare to ensure your safety and well-being in academic buildings and residences.

Wishing you all the best for the upcoming assessments.

Prof Wim de Villiers: Rector and Vice-Chancellor and Prof Stan du Plessis:  Chair: ICBC     ​