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Student Registration 2025
We welcome you to the University of the Free State! The 2025 academic year is fast approaching, and we can’t wait to see new and returning students on campus. Remember: Online registration opens on 7 January 2025; early registration is key to securing your place!

The University of the Free State (UFS) is excited to welcome new and returning students for the 2025 academic year. To ensure a smooth transition into university life, it is essential for all prospective and current students to familiarise themselves with the registration process.

To avoid delays, all students are advised to complete their registration as early as possible, as some programmes may have specific deadlines that differ from the general dates mentioned.

Registration methods

The UFS strongly encourages all students to use the online registration platform for a quick and easy process. This method is available for both new and returning students; please visit the official registration website for steps to register online.

However, a face-to-face, on-campus option is available to students who need additional support. Click on your relevant faculty below to learn more about the dates and on-campus venues.

Click to view documentFaculty of Theology and Religion

Click to view document Faculty of The Humanities

Click to view documentFaculty of Health Sciences

Click to view documentFaculty of Education 

Click to view documentFaculty of Economic and Management Sciences

Click to view documentFaculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Click to view documentFaculty of Law 

 

Key dates to keep in mind

First semesterSecond Semester
Online Registration 7 January - 7 February 2025 21 - 25 July 2025
Curriculum advice and registration for first-year students27 January - 7 February 202521 - 25 July 2025
Curriculum advice and registration for senior students20 January – 7 February 202521 - 25 July 2025
Curriculum advice and registration for Postgraduate students20 January – 7 February 2025 Honours and PGDip (unless communicated otherwise by your faculty)21 - 25 July 2025 Honours and PGDip (unless communicated otherwise by your faculty)
Classes start on10 February 202521 July 2025
The last date to add or change module14 February 2025
25 July 2025
The last date to cancel modules with full credit31 March 202515 August 2025

Returning master’s and doctoral students can register during the official registration period.

20 January – 31 March 2025 for the first semester or a year programme, NOT during the month they initially registered 

21 - 25 July 2025

Do you need further assistance? We’ve got you covered!

Should you require further guidance or have enquiries regarding the registration process, multiple avenues for support are available:

  • Institutional Call Centre: Call +27 51 401 9111 or WhatsApp +27 87 240 6370
  • Email support: Reach out to studentadmin@ufs.ac.za

The UFS experience is about more than just academic achievement; it’s about becoming part of something larger than yourself.

From exciting student activities to cutting-edge research, you’ll be surrounded by opportunities that challenge, support, and inspire you to take bold steps in your personal and professional growth. Welcome to a place where you don’t just learn – you thrive, evolve, and make lasting connections that will shape your future.

News Archive

Penny Siopis recipient of the prestigious Helgaard Steyn Award
2015-12-15

Vanya Terblance (ABSA Trust representative) hands over the award to Penny Siopis
Photo: Valentino Ndaba

On Friday 4 December 2015, Penny Siopis, the well-known Cape Town-based artist, who has been exhibiting her work locally and internationally since 1975, was presented with the 2015 Helgaard Steyn Award and a prize of R 550 000 for her painting entitled Swarm.

A quadrennial award lunch was hosted by the University of the Free State (UFS) Johannes Stegman Gallery in conjunction with the Helgaard Steyn and ABSA Trusts. The Helgaard Steyn Trust was established by the estate of Dr Jan Steyn and was named after his father and his brother who was the last president of the Orange Free State Republic.

Swarm, a 2011 painting using ink and glue on canvas, depicts a swarm of bees in a complex, dynamic, and intense manner. It earned the prestigious award that is dedicated to the promotion of artistic culture based on the adjudicators’ unanimous decision. Angela de Jesus, curator of the Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery at the UFS, Annali Dempsey of the University of Johannesburg Gallery, and Prof John Botha, Associate Professor in Art History at North West University, made up the 2015 panel of judges.

On receiving the award, Siopis thanked the Steyn family, the judges, and the people who nominated her. “I am struck by how fantastic it feels to be acknowledged. It is extraordinary when people are struck by what was your own world and the intensity buzzing in your head.”

According to Prof Botha, “Naturally the work of art is chosen on grounds of artistic merit and in the context of contemporary values with regards to both form and content.”

The award-winning painter studied Fine Arts at Rhodes University and Portsmouth University in United Kingdom. Apart from lecturing Fine Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand, she is an honorary professor at University of Cape Town Michaelis School of Fine Art. She has also taught at the Natal Technicon in Durban.

Siopis has received numerous awards for her work, including a British Council Scholarship, a Merit Award at the 2nd Cape Town Triennial, and the Atelier Award for a residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, in addition to the Alexander S Onassis fellowship for research in Greece.

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