Most varsities close doors on applications – but a few still open

A SMALL number of places are still available for matric pupils wanting to get into university in the Eastern Cape – but the majority of institutions have closed for late admissions.

The University of Fort Hare (UFH) and Rhodes University are no longer accepting admissions for undergraduate studies and today marks the deadline for students wanting to apply to NMMU.

Walter Sisulu University (WSU) has a few spaces left for prospective students who have passed maths and science.

NMMU spokeswoman Roslyn Baatjies said there were spaces and applications could be made until later today. She said prospective students were allowed to “walk-in” at campuses, but only those who met requirements and those who would not require tests would be considered.

Rhodes University student bureau manager Desiree Wicks said the university was no longer taking in undergraduate applications.

WSU spokeswoman Angela Church said there was still space available for accounting, science, engineering and B Ed Technical students.

But she stressed that these were only for prospective students who had done well in maths and science. Church said the university was accepting late applications and registration would open on January 27.

Fort Hare spokesman Lizo Phiti said the university had had 2 100 spaces to admit new students for the 2014 academic year but had received about 14 000 applications.

“We have admitted students to all of the available programmes. Therefore, the University of Fort Hare will not consider any walk-ins who have not applied in 2013.”

University of South Africa (Unisa) spokesman Martin Ramotshela said no new applications would be considered by the institution.

“The next application phase for the second semester of 2014 opens from April 7 to 25 this year,” Ramotshela said.

Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) spokeswoman Manana Makhanya said prospective students wanting to further their studies should use the services of a computerised centralised application system. It had been set up to assist them look for places at universities, further education and training colleges or to find learnerships with a sector education and training author- ity (Seta). The system, which was launched by Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande to avoid opening day panic following a stampede at the University of Johannesburg in 2012, can be accessed online at http://cach.dhet.gov.za .

Earlier this week, Eastern Cape Education MEC Mandla Makupula announced that maths and science pass rate had improved in the province by 5.3 percentage points despite teacher shortages.

However, there had been a decline in accounting, economics, Afrikaans first additional language, agricultural technology, mathematical literacy, mechanical technology, music and religious studies.