Masters Degree in South Africa: How to Enroll From Nigeria

Universities in South Africa are undoubtedly among the best on global scale.  University of Cape Town for example is a world class university. The same can be said of university of Stellenbosch as well as university of Pretoria.  They have very high standard of education in these school and they award globally recognized degree.

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Top class organization of the universities is yet another factor that makes them special.  Many students from across the globe are studying in South Africa today; many of these South African schools have students from USA, Europe and from various countries in Africa.

Many Nigerian students re studying in South Africa, both at the undergraduate and gradate levels.  Any Nigerian visiting South Africa to study will of course discover that South Africa is home away from home.

You will find your time there to be a very wonderful time indeed.  Admission process is considerable easy. The requirements are not as many as what obtains in any of those western country universities.

The fees differ from one school to another and it also depends on the course you plan to study there. The fees can range from N500,000 to N600,000 and this is only for tuition fees. Not to talk of a number of other fees that the student will have to pay.

Accommodation is another factor that the Nigerian student will have to consider.  Tuition fee is expensive in South Africa, same for accommodation.  The amount you will have to pay for accommodation is however determined by the part of South Africa you are residing.

However, you may have to set aside between N600,000 and N1 million per annum on accommodation.

Tuition fee and accommodation may be expensive, but food is considerably cheap there. Many Nigerians think they can get part-time job to subsidies for their accommodation and tuition costs, but such jobs are rarely available, since South Africans would also want to work in their own companies.

Factors to consider

South African schools may be the perfect place to have your master’s degree program, but there are some very important factors you have to keep in mind as a Nigerian while traveling to the school for your studies.

For one, you must keep in mind that South Africa is one of the countries with high rate of violence; you would recall the violence meted against Nigerians in South Africa some months back. You need to watch out for those violent-prone areas and thread carefully there or avoid those areas like plague.

Do not also forget that South Africa has its fair share of poverty too. Many of the citizens are poor and many are even homeless.

Never must you also forget the issue of HIV/AIDS when traveling to South Africa. South Africa is one of the countries with the highest number of adults infected with HIV.

Up to 6.8 million adults in South African have HIV.  Up to 200,000 of these adults die on annual basis.  You must therefore watch out when studying in South Africa.

Requirements for admission

You can register directly for your master’s degree program in South Africa right here in Nigeria. You can either register with any of the educational consults and agencies located in Nigeria and this will make things very easy for you.

You can also register directly with the school in South Africa by yourself right here in Nigeria. The process is not stressful, neither is it time consuming.

The requirements are very simple. The same requirements apply either you are applying into a private or public university in South Africa.

You will not need to sit for any form of entrance examination to get admitted for master’s degree program in South Africa.  Some of the requirements are highlighted below:

  • Personal statement to tell the school authority why you think you deserve to be given admission for master’s degree program in that institution.
  • Your curriculum vitae, which should not be more than 3 pages
  • A copy of your international passport
  • Your certificate of Foreign Result Evaluation (SAQA)
  • Your transcript, which should be forwarded to the South African university by the university where you did your undergraduate program.
  • All the copies of your higher qualifications.

How to apply

As hinted earlier, you can visit any of the travel agencies or educational consults around and they can help you with the processing. This makes things very easy for you. However, you can carry out the registration process by yourself.

All you need to do is to visit the website of the institution of your choice and find out if they offer the course you want to study. If they do, you can go ahead with the registration process.

The steps you need to take to get the registration done have been outlined on the website of the school already. All you have to do is to follow these instructions and you will be alright.

Before you proceed with the registration process, find out if you have the required qualifications for that course of study.  Visit the postgraduate portal of the institution and fill the form provided there. You will have to attach all the documents highlighted above on the site and submit them along with the online form you have filled.

There are times you will have to print out the form and fill it, then mail the said form via airmail or electronic mail to the South African university.  In such instances, the other documents too will have to be mailed along with the form.

Duration

Generally, master’s degree program in South Africa does not take more than 2 years; some can be earlier. The length of time you spend is determined by the particular course you are studying.

One thing that sets South African schools all apart is that you are allowed to pay your tuition fee on monthly basis.   Some of the local languages spoken in South Africa are Setswana and Afrikaans.

Be that as it may, you will not have to learn the local languages to study for master’s degree program in South Africa, since the programs are offered via English medium.  You may however want to learn the local language to make communication easier on the street.

 

3 thoughts on “Masters Degree in South Africa: How to Enroll From Nigeria”

  1. Can my Alma mater here in Nigeria send my transcript to SAQA?
    And my second question is will SAQA be able to send it back to me after Evaluation so that I can use the transcript in hunting for schools in South Africa?This will also enable me to have a student’s copy of the Transcript, so I can always apply to other schools.

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