Last minute student visa application past enrollment deadline

My friend has been a student in China for the last year. He recently came back to China after a month back in the US. He had planned to enroll for the new semester, thus renewing his visa. The university apparently has new procedures than were in place previously and says that it is simply not possible to enroll past the deadline which was over a month or two ago. This seems to be different from when he applied the last 3 times. Anyone else seen this situation? Any ideas as to a solution?