Deluge of student hopefuls
Overloaded Eastern Cape universities being forced to turn away thousands of applicants
EASTERN Cape universities will be forced to turn away thousands of prospective first-year students, even if they received good matric results.
At Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) alone, spokeswoman Zandile Mbabela said they had received more than 112 000 first-year applicants even though they would be able to accommodate only 6 500. The situation is just as bad at Walter Sisulu University of Technology as it will have to reject 22 500 of the 30 000 applications.
Mbabela said that every year the university received more pupils who showed interest in the university and every year there were more than they could take in.
“We just hope that those who applied at NMMU have also applied to other universities,” Mbabela said.
“This year, we may have received a bit more applications than the previous year because others applied both manually and online, therefore we are dealing with applications from about 50 000.”
WSU spokeswoman Yonela Tukwayo said although the university would like to take all qualifying students, because of the enrolment targets of the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), it could only accept 7 500 students for this academic year.
“WSU received more than 30 000 applications, and 12 000 just for the Buffalo City campus,” she said.
WSU warned matriculants who had not applied yet that the university would not take walk-ins.
“DHET set up the Central Application Clearing House for late applicants to avoid an influx to tertiary institutions and we encourage those matriculants who did not apply to use this service to find spaces,” Tukwayo said.
However, NMMU said if spaces on other courses became available, it would receive walk-ins.
“Depending on available spaces in the respective courses, a small window for walk-in applications may open, provided the applicant meets the direct entry requirements,” Mbabela said.
The University of Fort Hare was unavailable for comment, and Rhodes University had not responded to inquiries by the time of going to print yesterday.
We hope those who applied at NMMU also applied to other universities