Enrolment
You can enrol at SATS at any time of the year. The turnaround time for processing enrolments is one week from the time of application. In order to ascertain whether you are eligible for enrolment into one of our programmes please first visit either our Undergraduate or Postgraduate page. These pages provide the entrance requirements in detail.
Postgraduate
Our Postgraduate School is committed to providing the best opportunities and support for advanced theological studies. A competent team of full time staff members, as well as over 70 associates, serve an ever growing number of postgraduate students from all parts of the world. We employ a unique pre-enrolment discussion phase with all potential postgraduate students.
Undergraduate
The Undergraduate School is committed to providing the best opportunities and support for students studying an undergraduate qualification. Our team of administrators and academics are aware of the needs of first-time students and make every effort to help them to become familiar with new theological terminology and distance learning methods.
MySats Online Platform
MySats is a website that is the central hub of learning at SATS. It is the system that makes online distance learning possible, so you can do all your studies electronically wherever you live. MySats provides you with essential information for studying at SATS.
To read more about MySats click here.
Connectivity
You are able to communicate with other students and your course tutor on MySats. Since the feeling of isolation is one of the great challenges of distance learning, sharing your journey with other students is a great help. Students are allowed direct access to their tutors through MySats.
Paced Learning
By assigning due dates for all assignments and completion dates for all courses, MySats helps you to pace your studies in such a way that you are able to complete your qualification in good time by doing one course in each three-month term. The assignment dates are spread out to make your time-management easy – you just need to work steadily to complete your course.
Postgraduate School
The PGS site is the online platform where students doing advanced theological studies and our postgraduate faculty collaborate and discuss topics of mutual interest. The platform supports students doing postgraduate courses as well as those doing thesis work. Students upload their assignments, thesis chapters and any other documents relevant to their studies and they have the peace of mind that these valuable sources will be securely kept and will remain readily accessible. The platform also provides information of relevance to students and faculty, as well as access to a wide range of research material. Access to the website is easy – once you are a registered student you will be assigned your username and password you will then be able to login to the postgraduate site.
Read more about the Postgraduate School
Courses
Students complete a selection of compulsory and elective courses in their various undergraduate programmes. We have provided course descriptions for all courses, except the counselling courses, in video format where the tutor personally sketches the important aspects of the courses. These descriptions will give the student an idea of the expectations of the tutors.
Click here to see the Undergraduate Course Details
Click here to see the Postgraduate Course Details
Pay Online
This is a direct access to our online payment facility. Please remember when you make a payment using the online payment facility you must put your name and the title of your course or book in the required field. This will help our accounts department to identify your payment.
Crossroads
Crossroads is a pre-tertiary programme and a resource tool to help local churches run an in-house discipleship and leadership training programme. Crossroads provides the church with the material it needs to set up and run a quality training programme.
The material comprises: ready-to-use lessons, comprehensive notes, student hand-outs, marketing materials, administration tools and much more.
The Programme is available in English and Afrikaans.
Why would an international Christian higher education distance learning institution create a pre-tertiary (i.e. before university) bible study programme? Click here to find out.
For more information visit the Crossroads page
Conspectus
Conspectus is a refereed evangelical theological e-journal published biannually by the South African Theological Seminary. This journal is a publication for scholarly articles in any of the major theological disciplines. Conspectus aims to combine sound scholarship with a practical and readable approach.
Click here to see the Conspectus volumes.
Advantages of Studying at SATS
When you study with SATS you meet a team of educators and administrators who are creative, innovative, dedicated and passionate about the way they teach and deliver their courses. We are aware that it is crucial to balance business, careers, home and studies. With this in mind we believe we offer advantages to any person who would like to study via the distance learning method:
- We strive to understand your needs as a student.
- We constantly look at better methods of delivery.
- We are accredited by the Council on Higher Education and registered by the Department of Higher Education.
- Our qualifications are widely recognised.
- We involve you, our student, in the process of learning improvements.
- Our administrators are thoroughly trained, responsive and polite.
- We use technology to its full capacity to save you time.
- We are an internationally recognised institution
Timetable
The Seminary’s academic year runs from 1 February 2017 to 31 January 2018. The year is divided into four three-month terms.
- Term 1 – 1 Feb to 30 Apr
- Term 2 – 1 May to 31 July
- Term 3 – 1 Aug to 31 Oct
- Term 4 – 1 Nov to 31 Jan
The majority of undergraduate courses in the Higher Certificate in Christian Life (HCCL) and the Bachelor of Theology (B.Th.) run over a three-month term. Such courses are offered twice each year, either in Term 1 and 3 or in Term 2 and 4.
You will find the courses in each qualification ordered by the terms in which they are offered. You should select at least one course from each timeslot – that is, one each from Term 1, 2, 3 and 4 for the academic year. Although you are only required to complete three courses each year, to finish your qualification in reasonable time you need to average four courses each year.
Year Courses
Year Courses, namely Practical Ministry 1,2 and 3, and Greek 1a, 1b, 2a, and 2b, are courses that do not run over a fixed, three-month term. Instead, you have 365 days from the day you register to complete all the assessment tasks for the course. There are no prescribed due dates, but after 365 days your registration for this course will end automatically.
Contact Details
Telephone: +27 11 234-4440 Helpdesk/Telephone: +27 11 022-4440 Email: info@sats.edu.za Fax: +27 11 234-4445 Email: study@sats.edu.za Website: www.sats.edu.za
Click here for a full list of Contacts
Directions
GPS Coordinates S 26,052194° E 28,006309°
Directions to SATS Campus:
From the N1 South: Take the William Nichol offramp and turn left into William Nichol. Turn right into Bryanston Drive and right into Grosvenor at the first traffic lights. We are two traffic lights down on the right hand side with the entrance in Cumberland.
From the N1 North: Take the William Nichol offramp and turn right into William Nichol. Turn right into Bryanston Drive and right into Grosvenor at the first traffic lights. We are two traffic lights down on the right hand side with the entrance in Cumberland.
SATS Library
Our library contains an impressive collection of books, journals and e-books. In addition, we have nearly 200,000 books in our online library. You are welcome to browse the wide range of outstanding titles to assist you in your research, via our online catalogue. For postgraduate students who cannot access our physical holdings in person, the librarian, Tawanda, will assist you by sending you digital copies of your requested research extracts.
Search the Library Catalogue
Contact the Librarian library@sats.edu.za.
Click here to access our Conspectus Journal which is a repository of Academic articles and papers.
Message from the Principal: Why study theology at SATS?
In the past, and to a lesser extent, the recent past, some denominations have argued that as long as the pastor has a Bible and the Holy Spirit, that is enough to equip him/her to preach. After all, the disciples did not go to Bible College, did they? Happily, one hears much less of that kind of reasoning these days and it is because more and more people have come to realise that in an age where the congregation is more intellectually astute (and more critical), and where Christianity has become subjected to the attacks of secular ideologies much more intensively, it is non-negotiable that our leaders are able to understand and clearly defend the core doctrines of the faith from a biblical perspective. To do that they need to be properly equipped by specialists in this area, namely seminary faculty.
If you are considering enrolling at SATS but don’t wish to complete a full programme, you do have the option to purchase a single course which we call “Stand-alone” courses, the prices for which are as follows:
All courses include academic readers, which means that you don’t need to purchase textbooks.
Pricing
Undergraduate Counselling courses = R2 022 per course
Undergraduate courses = R1 769 per course
Honours 12 credit courses = R2 231 per course
Honours 24 credit courses = R4 462 per course
Certificate of Financial Operational Effectiveness and Accountability
SATS was the first institution in the world to receive the Certificate of Financial Operational Effectiveness and Accountability awarded by the International Council on Higher Education (ICHE).
To achieve this, we were subjected to a panel visit by a team of financial experts, who carefully scrutinised our financial systems and reviewed all documented accounting, financial and budgeting policies and procedures, and compared them to international best practice.
Those enrolling or partnering with SATS, can therefore be assured of our financial integrity and exemplary practice.