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Short Courses at the Mandela Institute

The Mandela Institute offers continuing professional development in the form of stand-alone short courses. These courses are aimed at practitioners and law graduates who wish to gain new knowledge or update their skills, or to graduates who want to learn about various aspects of the law.

  

Short Course General Information

Entry Requirements

Entry Requirements for Accredited and Non-Accredited Courses

A relevant Bachelor of Laws or Bachelor of Commerce in Law or Bachelor of Arts in Law or equivalent qualification is a prerequisite for admission to the postgraduate certificate courses;

OR

Applicants with any other undergraduate qualifications must complete the bridging course Introduction to Law for Non- Lawyers or equivalent courses first as well as have relevant legal work experience in the specific legal field before they would be considered for other courses.

You will be required to submit:

  • Certified copies of Qualifications and Academic Records
  • Certified copy of Identity Document or Passport

Kindly note that all foreign qualifications must be submitted with a SAQA Evaluation Letter.

NB: ONLY applicants with an LLB qualification may apply for credit for MI short courses towards the Postgraduate Diploma or LLM degrees.

Entry Requirements for Labour Dispute Resolution Practice (LDRP) Courses

A relevant Bachelor of Laws or Bachelor of Commerce in Law or Bachelor of Arts in Law or equivalent qualification is a prerequisite for admission to the postgraduate certificate courses;

OR

Applicants with any other undergraduate qualifications with relevant labour law experience must complete the free compulsory skills development course Foundations of Commercial Law Practice.  

Kindly note that basic computer literacy skills are compulsory for all courses.

You will be required to submit:

  • Certified copies of Qualifications and Academic Records
  • Certified copy of Identity Document or Passport
  • A detailed Curriculum Vitae

Kindly note that all foreign qualifications must be submitted with a SAQA Evaluation Letter.

NB: ONLY applicants with an LLB qualification may apply for credit for MI short courses towards the Postgraduate Diploma or LLM degrees.

Certifications

The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (Wits) is recognised as a South African public university in terms of the Higher Education Act 101 of 1997, as amended. The Mandela Institute is a Centre within Wits and is accredited to offer certificate courses through Wits internal accreditation processes.

A postgraduate certificate course is always less than a full time year of study and there are two types of certificate courses on offer:

  • Certificate of Attendance
  • Certificate of Competence

Certificate of Competence

To obtain a certificate of competence, students are required to attend and participate in 75% of the lectures and to complete the assessments as required in the course. Please note that if you register for a Certificate of Competence and do not complete or fail the assessment, no certificate will be issued.

Certificate of Attendance

To obtain a certificate of attendance, students are required to attend and participate in 75% of the lectures.

Notification of change in registration i.e. Certificate of Competence to Certificate of Attendance or vice versa needs to be received within 3 weeks from the start of the course.

Course Costs

The fees for Mandela Institute short courses vary.

2nd Semester
Access to Information and Privacy Law R 15 960.00
Advanced Administrative Law R 15 960.00
Advanced Collective Labour Law R 15 960.00
AntiMoney Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism R 15 960.00
Climate Change and Energy Law R 15 960.00
Collective Labour Law Practice and Jurisdiction R 13 650.00
Company Law II 15 960.00
Competition Law R 15 960.00
Construction and Engineering Law R 15 960.00
Data Protection and the Protection of Personal Information (POPIA) R 15 960.00
Foundations of Commercial Law Practice 13 650.00
Individual Labour Law Practice 13 650.00
Intellectual Property Law 15 960.00
International Law on Foreign Investments R 15 960.00
International Trade Law II 15 960.00
Introduction to Law for Non-Lawyers 13 650.00
Labour Arbitration 13 650.00
Labour Dispute Resolution Practice R 54 600.00
Law of Banking and Financial Markets R 15 960.00
Mediation & Conciliation 13 650.00
Pension Funds Law II R 15 960.00
Procurement Law 15 960.00
Prospecting and Mining Law 15 960.00
Risk, Compliance and Governance 19 960.00 
Short-Term Insurance Law R 15 960.00

 

 

Course Dates and Duration

Kindly refer to Course Brochure for Duration and Dates.

Payment of Fees
  • ALL fees must be paid ten (10) days before the start of either the semester course or the start of the block release course and registration is conditional on payment of tuition in full. You may not attend lectures before proof of payment is submitted to the Institute and your registration is confirmed.

  • The fees for courses are the responsibility of the individual attending the course. For sponsored students, the individual needs to ensure that the organisation will have enough time to process the payment. The payment must be made with the correct bank reference, and Proof of Payment should be sent to the Mandela Institute on e-mail mandela.institute@wits.ac.za to confirm registration.

  • Non-attendance will not result in a reduction of fees, nor will it absolve the participant or the other signatories from full liability for the payment of fees.

  • Mandela Institute at the School of Law, University of the Witwatersrand, reserves the right to change timetables, course commencement dates, postpone or cancel a course in its programme initially advertised and offered, on the basis of insufficient demand or on any other reasonable ground. In such a case a full refund will be made.

  • The student agrees to be bound by the rules of due performance. Mandela Institute at the School of Law, University of the Witwatersrand, reserves the right to exclude the student from an examination and to withhold a student’s examination results and certificate if due performance requirements have not been met, without any way detracting from the right of the Mandela Institute at the School of Law, University of the Witwatersrand to recover fees payable.

  • No certificate will be issued to students who fail to pay their fees on time and any payment received after due date will be forfeited as a debt due to the university. 
Cancellation of a Course
  • Cancellation of Registration can only be done by written email within 3 days of commencement of the course to Mandela.Institute@wits.ac.za.
  • Cancellation by registrant after commencement of the semester/course will result in liability for the full amount and forfeiture of all fees paid.
  • The Mandela Institute from the School of Law, University of the Witwatersrand (Mandela Institute) reserves the right to postpone or cancel a course due to lack of demand.
  • In the event of cancellation, or reasonable postponement time, all fees paid will be refunded to the person/entity that made the original payment.
Access to University Resources

As a postgraduate certificate course student you will have access to the following University resources:

  • You will have perimeter access to the Wits campus but if you want to have access through the security booms you will need to obtain a parking permit. These can be obtained through the ICAM Centre and the Parking Office respectively and their offices are located in Solomon Mahlangu House on the East Campus.  Please note that you need to obtain your registration card from the Programme Assistant before proceeding to the ICAM Centre or the Parking Office to obtain your ICAM card and that there will be a fee payable for the access card and parking.

  • After obtaining your access card you will have access to the law library and full computer access in the library to all data bases and other electronic resources held by the University.

  • You will have access to the online library resources only while on campus.  Please note that when you are off campus only catalog information will be available as licensing agreements with vendors preclude you having off-campus access to electronic databases.

Please note that the above access only becomes available once full payment of tuition fees has been received.

Accreditation of Certificates

NB: ONLY applicants with an LLB qualification may apply for credit for MI short courses towards the Postgraduate Diploma or LLM degrees.

Accreditation of certificate courses for credits towards the Postgraduate Diploma in Law or LLM degree is subject to approval by the Postgraduate Diploma and LLM Programme Director and upon admission to the Postgraduate Diploma in Law or LLM degree.

The certificate courses are stand-alone courses but if at the time of assessment the completion of the assessment for the certificate course conforms with the assessment requirements on a Postgraduate Diploma in Law or LLM level, application can be made for the certificate course to be accredited with credits once approval has been obtained to enter into the Postgraduate Diploma in Law or LLM degree.

You need to complete 2 certificate courses to apply for credits towards the Postgraduate Diploma in Law or LLM degree and an average percentage of 65% needs to be obtained for accreditation towards a Postgraduate Diploma and 70% for accreditation towards a Masters Degree. Application for credits towards the Postgraduate Diploma in Law or LLM degree must be made within three years of completing the certificate course.

For further information on the Postgraduate Diploma in Law and Master Degree please refer to the information available on the website on Postgraduate Studies at Wits School of Law.

Apply

You can only apply as follows:

  • Kindly ensure that you provide all the correct details on the online application form and should your employer be responsible for the payment please complete the relevant section before submitting, as invoices cannot be amended afterwards for employer details.

  • Please also submit a copy of your Identity Document or Passport as well as Bachelors Degree and academic records.

  • Applications for the Labour Dispute Resolution Practice courses and applications based on work experience need to submit the following additional documents with the completed application form:

  • A detailed motivation on reasons why applicants want to enrol for the courses;

    • A detailed Curriculum Vitae

    • Tertiary qualifications and academic records;

    • Identity document or passport.

  • Once the application form and necessary documents has been received, your application will be reviewed and accepted applications will be provisionally registered on the course and an invoice will be issued to you.
  • Proof of payment for the fees needs to be submitted by the stipulated date given in your provisional registration.

  • Once the payment has been confirmed a confirmation of registration will be sent.
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