Help for EC ‘walk-in’ students
Many rely on Zuma’s December promise of free tertiary education
UNIVERSITY campuses were busy yesterday as thousands queued to enquire if they had been accepted to study or if they could change their courses, and some to see if there was space for them.
While some institutions were processing these walk-ins, others were not.
The queues stem from the announcement made by President Jacob Zuma in December of free tertiary education for poor students, coupled with calls by EFF leader Julius Malema for matriculants who couldn’t afford university fees to report to academic institutions.
Student formations at Walter Sisulu University ignored warnings by university management and set up stalls yesterday at its Buffalo City Metro campuses to assist prospective learners apply for courses at the institution.
University spokeswoman Yonela Tukwayo confirmed yesterday that there were prospective students on their campuses who had walked in to apply for various courses and that the university was processing their applications.
“We are officially not accepting walk-ins. But we are given targets by the Department of Higher Education and Training and we must meet them, which is why you would then have vacancies in certain qualifications. However, those that are applying now will not get a response until after the registration process is complete.”
Yesterday the Economic Freedom Fighters Student Command (EFFSC) led a mass mobilisation of all qualifying learners to the university’s Potsdam campus to apply for admission. EFFSC branch chairman Nqaba Sajini said the march was not intended to disrupt any university processes but to take advantage of the “lose processes” of the universities.
“Our universities are not like your Wits (University of the Witwatersrand) and the rest; we have unique challenges – we have courses advertised as being still open. Had we relaxed and sat at home many students would be excluded from the higher education system,” said Sajini.
“It must be known that WSU BCM campus is accepting walk-ins like every other year and we encourage students who qualify for the available courses to apply.”
The Daily Dispatch watched as EFF members assisted the future students check their applications on the university’s online system and assist others to fill in application forms.
However, the university insisted it was not taking walk-ins.
It encouraged learners to use the Department Of Higher Education’s Central Applications Clearing House to apply for spaces that were available at the university.
At the tertiary institution’s Potsdam campus, scores of prospective students strolled onto the campus where EFFSC, the South African Students Congress (Sasco) and the Students’ Christian Organisation (SCO) members had set up stalls to assist with online applications.
Meanwhile at the University of Fort Hare, student leadership was locked in a meeting that lasted for hours as they discussed student registration issues.
Speaking to the Daily Dispatch team yesterday, some students said they could not comment on record as they were awaiting their leadership to advise on what to do about walk-ins.
At Nelson Mandela University’s (NMU) south campus yesterday hundreds of young people – some accompanied by their parents – descended in a last-minute attempt to register for the 2018 academic year.
However NMU said prospective students had until Friday to make walk-in applications for spaces still available in under-subscribed programmes.
A 19-year old student who spoke on condition of anonymity said he had travelled all the way from remore rural areas in the hopes of enrolling to study mechanical engineering. “The announcement by the president has somehow lifted the financial burden off the shoulders of my grandmother.
“I don’t have anyone to fund my studies and am hoping the university will comply with the announcement by the government.” ● See page 4 for another article
on ‘walk-ins’