Failed student fights to register

A UKZN student secured an urgent high court order yesterday, compelling the university to allow her to register for accountancy this semester – even though she did not get the required pass mark in her midyear exams.

Priyanka Maharaj, a firstyear commerce student, claims she and other students were victims of a rule amendment which, she believes, might not have been made lawfully.

And while she challenges this through a Promotion of Access to Information application, she says she ought to be allowed to continue with accountancy so that if she is proved right, she can write the year-end exams.

In her application, which came before Judge Rishi Seegobin, Maharaj said she obtained 63% for accounting for her mid-term exams, but this was reduced to 53% when her DP (duly performance) certificate was taken into consideration. This is a certification that a student has met minimum attendance and work requirements for a course.

Challenging

“The department of accounting has a rule that one cannot proceed to register for accounting again until he or she passes with at least 55%. It is this rule that I am challenging,” she said.

Maharaj said general rules of the university only required a 50% pass mark for any subject, although a college could specify an alternative minimum mark before registration for the proposed module.

“If the pass mark was changed to 55%, only the Academic Affairs Board for the School of Management Science and Law or the Senate has the authority to change it,” Maharaj said. “If it is done by the dean or any other person in authority, it will be invalid.”

Her attorneys had asked the university for the minutes and resolutions of meetings at which it had been resolved to increase the pass mark.

“In the meantime, I will not be able to write the class tests, do projects or complete tutorials,” said Maharaj. “I have been attending classes and have done all the homework, so should the order be granted, I will be able to write the final examination,” she said.

The university’s director of legal services, advocate P Finden, said Maharaj was on a “fishing expedition”. He said the application would be opposed and the university would provide minutes of meetings.

Judge Seegobin granted an interim order that Maharaj be allowed to register for the subject. The case was adjourned.