Announcement: First Year Law Students

It is a pleasure to welcome you as part of the extended NWU PUK family.

It is a pleasure to welcome you as part of the extended NWU family. We have thought it prudent to provide you with basic information that will assist you to support your first-year law student during this year of adjustment. Please file this letter for future reference.

During the faculty’s academic orientation session and registration all academic information will be given to students. We will explain everything your child needs to know about timetables, module choices, registration, tests, and examinations. Please encourage your child to attend all the sessions presented by the faculty. If they don’t attend, they will not have all the academic information they need and this may cost them dearly later on.

The registration and orientation programme 2018 is available electronically.

Official communication with students

eFundi is an interactive web-based platform created by the NWU for communication with students. All students gain access to eFundi once they are registered. There is a site for each module (subject) offered at the NWU and your child has access to the modules he/she is registered for. Announcements, assignments, test information, study material, additional reading, and marks are posted on eFundi throughout. Students who don’t live on campus can use the computer facilities on campus free of charge or can access the NWU network via their own internet connection.

Communication with parents

Official results are posted to the e-mail address supplied during application for admission and registration. We e-mail our biannual electronic newsletter to all parents whose e-mail addresses have been supplied to the NWU. Please see to it that your child has all your current contact details in his/ her possession during registration and ask them to update the records, should they change. We appreciate any comments or feedback to the faculty. Please send yours through to our generic e-mail address: Law@nwu.ac.za

Study material

Each student is provided with a study guide in each module. This forms the framework of all academic work during the semester. The costs of the guides are included in the tuition fees and your child will be assisted to collect theirs after registration. Students have to buy the prescribed textbooks themselves. Students are expected to independently search for and use additional study material – this is normally done in the library or via the library’s website. Students bear their own copying costs but downloading material on their own electronic storage devices is free of charge.

Class attendance and study hours

Law students attend approximately two periods in each module each week. It is of the utmost importance that each class is attended. In addition, it is expected from law students to work through large volumes of reading material on their own, as well as to prepare for class. The programmes have been designed to require a law student to study an average of 40 hours per week.

Tests, assignments, and examinations

Students are continuously assessed in each module. Assessments may take the form of scheduled or unscheduled tests, orals, individual or group assignments as determined by the lecturer. These assessments determine a student’s participation mark in a module. Students who miss assessments due to illness or other valid reasons must follow the procedure prescribed by the particular lecturer to make up for the missed assessment (within 7 days after the test has been written). Lecturers may decide how the participation mark is calculated and this differs from module to module.  Information on the calculation will be provided in the study guide and on eFundi. Normally the minimum participation mark for admission to write the examination is 40%.

A student’s module mark is the average of his/her participation and examination marks. Law students must also obtain a minimum of 45% in the examination in order to pass a module, regardless how high their participation mark is.

Law students may apply to peruse their marked scripts after the first examination opportunity, during the perusal process. They may apply for a remark at the prescribed fee. These procedures are published on eFundi.

All students who had admission to write the examination, but did not pass or could not write the first examination for whatever reason may write the second examination, but an administrative fee is levied per module. There is no supplementary or special examination, students must make use of one of the two scheduled examination opportunities or repeat the module.

Availability of marks

Marks for tests, assignments or other assessments during the semester, as well as participation marks, are released to students on eFundi. Marks for tests or assignments are published within 15 working days. Students must verify that their marks are correct and must bring any mistake to the lecturer’s attention within 7 days. Marked tests and assignments are only handed back in class and must be retained by students until the module has been successfully completed. Special arrangements are made for verification of participation marks.

Examination marks are released within eight working days after the paper was written. It can be obtained in any of the following ways:

·         The examination results will be sent electronically to your e-mail address

·         NWU website http://www.nwu.ac.za

·         SMS nwu(space)student number to 35606

No marks are released telephonically. Your child has continuous electronic access to all his/her marks and can download it for you or supply you with a printout thereof. Members of the Faculty staff are not allowed to provide academic information to parents or any third parties. Kindly request your child to provide you with the information you need or to assist you to gain access to it.

Lecturers and consulting hours

Lecturers are the student’s first port of call if he/she has any enquiry about a module or marks. Lecturers are usually responsible for more than one module and also have other administrative and research tasks – for this reason, each lecturer has fixed consultation hours during which students may approach them with problems. The lecturers’ offices are situated in the New Law Building and their consultation hours are published on eFundi. In cases of emergency, appointments outside consultation hours can be scheduled through the School’s Administrative Officer or by sending the lecturer an e-mail.

Contact particulars of lecturers are posted on eFundi and printed in the study guides. Students are encouraged to lodge their enquiries via e-mail, as this will assist proper record keeping and will develop their formal written communication skills.

Problems

It is important that law students learn to manage their own academic progress and handle their own academic problems according to prescribed rules and procedures right from the outset, as they have to use these skills when appearing for clients within a few years’ time. We deal with the rules and procedures extensively during the orientation programme and it is also provided electronically. As we accept that our students are adults, we expect them to solve their own problems in the first instance. Parents and other interested parties should only become involved after students have exhausted the procedures on their own. We rely on your understanding and support in this regard!

If a student cannot solve an academic problem by means of e-mails to or discussion with a lecturer, he/she should complete a student request form in which the problem and request are clearly stated. Forms are available on eFundi and have to be completed and submitted electronically to Law@nwu.ac.za. The Faculty Administrator, Mrs. Alpha Marais and/or the Director: Undergraduate Programmes will consider the request. If the student wishes to appeal against the outcome of the request, this can be done in writing and can be submitted to the Acting Executive Dean, Professor Stephen de la Harpe. Please bear in mind that all requests are handled within the parameters of the university’s academic rules. Please note that all official correspondence regarding student requests and student enquiries will be sent to your email address.

Thank you for entrusting us with your child’s tertiary education. We are serious about legal education and trust that your child will thoroughly enjoy the next few years as a student in the faculty.

Acting Executive Dean and management, Faculty of Law