BTech students’ plans in limbo

Hundreds at WSU await 2016 results

HUNDREDS of Walter Sisulu University (WSU) students’ plans to study for a BTech are being thwarted by the university not having given them their 2016 results.

WSU communications director Yonela Tukwayo told the Saturday Dispatch that students already registered at the university should not panic as they were already part of the programme.

Students in small business management, marketing and sports management, who are poised to start their BTech studies, said they still did not know whether they would be accepted into their respective BTech programmes.

Lectures are meant to start in two weeks’ time.

Tukwayo said WSU was still busy with the registration of firstyear students and would move on to second-year students today.

She said students had not received their marks because they had submitted their work logbooks late.

She said employers had to assess the students’ logbooks and hand them back to the student, who then had to submit them to their lecturers for marking.

She had been informed by the deputy registrar, Sylvester Khohlisa, that students were registered “provisionally”, pending the outcome of the logbook marking process.

Frustrated business management student Lulama September said students had been going to the university every day since it opened and had been sent from pillar to post with no clear communication about when they would receive their marks.

“I want to further my studies. I don’t want to be forced to take a gap year. I had planned on finishing my studies in time. This is really unfair,” September said.

September said because their logbooks had still not been marked, their status at the institution had been marked as “provisionally registered”, making it impossible for them to apply or register to study further.

Although they had been at WSU since 2014, lecturers had told them that the BTech courses were full and only new students and those who applied for BTech qualifications on time would be considered.

Zamokuhle Mdolombo, who is from KwaZulu-Natal, said she was worried she would have to travel home and do nothing.

“I came back early to try to sort out my studies for the year.

“Our marks are still not out and we are supposed to be registering now. We have heard that the faculties are full and there is no space for us.

“It does not make sense for us not to be accepted to study. We have been at the university for years and should automatically be moving to the next level, which is our BTech qualifications.” — qaqambam@dispatch.co.za