This student is filing a complaint about issues with his dissertation supervision and progress. He was originally accepted in 2004 to an MCom program supervised by Dr. Antonites and Miss Nayager. By 2006, Dr. Antonites said the dissertation was ready to be finalized. However, Dr. Antonites then resigned in late 2006 without finalizing it. In 2007, Prof. Pellissier and Miss Nayager took over but told the student a new first chapter was needed. Nearly a year later, little progress has been made and the student was notified of deregistration. He is requesting the department head look into the situation which he describes as stressful due to the unclear requirements and lack of timely supervision over the years

1. cnieuwen@unisa.ac.zadepartment of business management
mpofurt@unisa.ac.za school of management sciences
complain
Dear Prof Cecil Nieuwenhuizen
I am a student within the department (student number: 34 202102) who is approaching you
regarding academic matters. My supervisor since January 2007 is Dr Pellissier and Miss Nayager
is co-supervisor. On December 03rd 2007, I learnt through Dr Pellissier and Miss Nayager that I
will receive a letter from the administration of the University that they are not impressed with the
progression of my work, and they took the decision to deregister me. When asked the question if
I will be registering again for the third time in February 2008, Dr Pellissier told me that I will
only register if she is satisfied with my proposal. Strange to be working on a proposal at my
third year MCom when in April/May 2006, my previous supervisor Prof ANTONITES was
prepared to wrap up my MCom dissertation. Please let me explain you how we find ourselves in
the situation.
In 2003, I have applied for an MCom within the department of business management, and the 11th
February 2004 received the letter of acceptance for the programme with Dr Alex Antonites as
supervisor. After six months of refining the proposal with Dr Antonites, he announced me the
fact that Miss Nayager is specialized in corporate entrepreneurship; he will need her as a co-
supervisor.
During the 2004 academic year, I received constructive supervision from the above mentioned
lecturers to the point that, I gathered the information and received the assistance of a UNISA
statistician to analyse the data. By November 2004, Dr Antonites qualified my progress as
satisfactory and my dissertation being at it ‘final stage’.
I 2005, I reached a point where the entire full dissertation was compiled in a single document
with all the six chapters. During these two years, I received from Dr Antonites and Miss Nayager
academic assistance (supervision) until when I registered for the first time in March 2006.
In May 2006, Dr Antonites requested to have the six chapters of my dissertation. One week later,
he told me to come and see him in his office. During our meeting, he said to me that we must
wrap up the dissertation as all the six chapters were finalized; but he must consult Miss
Nayager to set up a date for this finalisation. After three minutes of discussion with Miss
Nayager, Dr Antonites told me that he will phone me for the meeting. The meeting that have
never happened.
However, I continued phoning Dr Antonites to know when we will meet. Around July 2006, Dr
Antonites told me that he send my work for external examination. From July till November
2006, I was phoning Dr Antonites to know how far my dissertation is.
Surprisingly, in November 2006, Dr Antonites told me he resigned and that the University
will appoint a new supervisor and contact me as soon as possible. I met around January 2007

2. Prof Badhendorst to share with her my worries as the University was not coming back to me.
Prof Badhendorst and I phoned Dr Antonites to obtain the latest on my dissertation. He asked us
to discuss with Miss Nayager, as there were some few things to fix on the dissertation. It was the
first time, in January 2007 that I learnt there are certain things that need to be fixed in the
dissertation. Later on, Prof Badhendorst and I discussed with Miss Nayager for the way forward.
She told us that, she is only a co-supervisor and cannot decide on the outcome of the dissertation.
One month later, around February, Prof Pellissier was appointed as the new supervisor. After my
registration, she told me that they (Pellisssier and Nayager) went through my dissertation and
they think that we must start from the first chapter and that the rest of the dissertation will
remain intact. This assurance did not bother me, as I was sure that even in one month, we can
finalise the dissertation.
Since March 2007, we have not finished with the first chapter. The 03rd December 2007, when I
met Miss Nayager, she told me that the administration of the University will send me the letter of
my deregistration as they (Prof Pellissier and Miss Nayager) are not satisfied with my progress.
I am sending you this email to share with you the current situation which is very stressful. I am
ready and available to substantiate everything that is written. I still have the full dissertation of
April/March 2006 when Dr Antonites told me that we must wrap up the document.
I am looking forward to hear from you about this issue and appreciate your availability in going
through the present letter of complaint.
Kind regards,
Alain NDEDI
Cell: 084 992 9499
CC:
Prof MPOFU
Mr. AAN
Date: Thursday 06 December 2007. Time: 07: 35