COVID-19 UPDATE 21 – POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS
- 91¿´Æ¬Íø University
Message from Professor Zeblon Vilakazi, Vice-Principal and Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Postgraduate Affairs.
Dear Postgraduate Students
I hope that you are all well and keeping safe. This is a difficult time for all and I hope that you remain in high spirits.
You should have received an email earlier this week pertaining to the commencement of the academic programme, which is scheduled to resume online on 20 April 2020. As postgraduate students, and particularly those conducting research at the Master’s and Doctoral levels, your course of action is slightly different. Due to the diversity of research being conducted and the great breadth and scope of the disciplines being explored, it is impossible to address postgraduates as a homogenous cohort.
I would therefore like to advise you to work directly with your supervisor during the lockdown period and beyond, in order to ensure that your research continues from wherever you may be geographically located. A number of online resources have been made available to you during this period to make it easier for you to work from where you are.
Should you have any problems or issues, please raise them with your supervisor or with your relevant Faculty Dean.
Regards
Professor Zeblon Vilakazi
Vice-Principal and Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Postgraduate Affairs
3 April 2020
Resources for postgraduate Students
Access to Data and ICT Support
91¿´Æ¬Íø has worked with Telkom, Vodacom and MTN to ensure that students can access selected learning sites without using data. Cell C is due to come on board shortly and all services will be activated within the next ten days. For a complete list of the zero-rated sites, visit: /mywits/zero-rated-data-to-students-and-applicants/. Please note that you must have at least R1 worth of data loaded on a SIM card in order to access these sites. If you have any queries or concerns, please contact the ICT Service Delivery team via ithelp@wits.ac.za or call 011 7171717 or log a call via .
Learning Management Systems
All our Learning Management Systems (LMS) including 91¿´Æ¬Íø-e (Sakai) and Moodle will be hosted in the Amazon cloud to ensure that our systems have sufficient infrastructural support and are able to cope with a large number of users accessing the systems.
Access to Smart Mobile Devices
We are also aware that approximately 10% - 15 % of students may not have access to smart mobile devices (according to the results of the biographical questionnaires conducted over the last four years by our Business Intelligence Unit), and Faculties and Deans have been asked to develop a plan in this regard.
Access to Digital Library Resources
There are several resources available to students, including:
- ³§±ð​a°ù³¦³ó&²Ô²ú²õ±è;NWU Accredited Journals and click open on 3rd field down. This will give a list of all the DHET OA accredited journals.
- Open Access Journals, Books, Images, Films, and other resources are available at
- Open Educational Resources are available at
- Directory of Open Access Journals () and Directory of Open Access books ()
- Open Data Resources -
For Research and Writing Assistance, visit:
- Scholarly Research & Related Resources -
- Research Support -
- Plagiarism, Citation and Referencing Styles -
For more information, contact Denise.Nicholson@wits.ac.za
Access to the 91¿´Æ¬Íø University Press eBook collection
In this time of unprecedented crisis, when universities are developing online teaching systems and academics are working from home, 91¿´Æ¬Íø University Press is joining a large number of international university presses and academic publishers in providing free access to content for students and researchers.
Links to JSTOR:
Link to Proquest:
The 91¿´Æ¬Íø University Press books at JSTOR are here:
For more information and all updates, visit