Wits SRC slams 8% hike for 2017
THE Wits University Student Representative Council (SRC) has criticised management and labelled it as opportunistic following an announcement made late yesterday that fees would be increased by eight percent for the 2017 academic year.
Wits SRC president Kefentse Mkhari said the SRC was shocked to learn of the university’s decision to increase fees despite the institution claiming it was behind students’ call for free higher education.
“The university was very opportunistic, even the timing of them releasing the statement, they obviously waited for students to leave campus so that there is no mass meeting,” Mkhari said.
The university said it had consulted the SRC before making the decision.
Mkhari said the announcement was made while the SRC was having an induction and were thus not given sufficient time to consult.
“The university tries to legitimatise its decision by saying that we were part of the consultative process while they consulted us two days before the council meeting sat,” he said. “In fact it wasn’t a consultation, it was them telling us reasons why they would be increasing fees by eight percent.”
Wits spokesperson Shirona Patel said the university had no choice but to increase fees if it was to remain financially sustainable as academics as well as professional and administrative staff needed to be remunerated, books and journals needed to be purchased (many in foreign currency), utilities need to be paid and infrastructure needs to be maintained.
According to Wits, a zero percent hike next year would mean a R191 million deficit, a six percent hike would equate to a R90m deficit, while the eight percent hike Wits would implement would result in a R56.5m deficit.
However, Mkhari questioned the transparency of the system used to make the decision to increase fees.
“If they could start a poll on whether we should return to classes, why didn’t they run the same poll to judge whether fess should be increased or not because the students are the majority of the population of the university community?”
In September, the Department of Higher Education and Training said it recommended universities did not implement a fee hike of over eight percent.
“If they were genuinely concerned about these issues, they should be adding to our voices and we should all go to the state and require them to fund free higher education because we cannot keep carrying the burden of the lack of funding that is perpetuating itself by the state,” Mkhari said. “After it had failed to add their voice to ours, they are now shifting the burden to the students.”
Wits SRC deputy secretary general Kaamil Alli added that it was unfortunate that Wits adopted a stance that was against the call for free education.
“The stance adopted is in contradiction to that of students. We had hoped they would want to show a united front with the students.”