Dear Parent or Guardian,

During the past week, we have made considerable progress in resuming the academic programme, despite the challenges presented by the ongoing volatility around national student protests. As part of our commitment to completing the academic year, we have successfully implemented alternative teaching and learning methods.

As previously communicated, all lecture and study material has been made available either online, or by other means. In cases where contact between students and lecturers is required, arrangements have been made with students per module via their respective faculties.

I believe the hybrid approach to teaching, which entails a balanced mix of traditional, distance and online teaching methods leads to better learning outcomes for students than exclusively online, or traditional teaching methods. We have been working on this approach for a while and I'm confident that it will continue to form part of our learning and teaching mix in the future as is the case with some of the leading universities both locally and internationally.

We have also made arrangements with several Internet service providers for them to provide data to students, as well as with AlwaysOn and the Tshwane Municipality for Wi-Fi access. The Internet service providers have generously offered the data free of charge for the remainder of the academic year to enable students to visit the UP website and our e-learning channel. We have also opened some of our computer labs to give students access to computer equipment.

We hope and trust that these arrangements will assist students as they prepare for the examinations which start on 14 November 2016. Students who need further support are encouraged to contact their faculties.

While we are thankful to continue with the academic year, we acknowledge that the call for free higher education has not yet been resolved. We remain committed to engagements with students and staff on this very important issue, and we will work with all interested parties to persuade government to commit to a timeline and to find ways to make education accessible to all deserving students.

More information is available on the University's official website www.up.ac.za. Students are also advised to check the student portal and clickUP for daily updates.

Best wishes,