NETWORK’S CONCERN

THE HIGHER Education Transformation Network (HETN) notes the media statement by Universities South Africa (USAF) dated January 1 with deep concern.

While we acknowledge that the state has contributed to the delay in the release of the final report of the Heher Fees Commission for consideration by all stakeholders in higher education, we believe there has been strategic policy guidance from the state as well as internal consultative meetings between affected universities’ managers, NSFAS and the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET).

The network does not support the chaotic storming of university gates advocated by some political players. This will be tantamount to chaos.

We call on all 26 universities to extend their admission deadlines for the acceptance of more applications to cater for the students who are to benefit from the Fee Free higher education plan. The admission deadlines of most universities for the 2018 academic year have closed.

While we note university management concerns regarding chaotic registration processes, the emphasis on exclusively online applications will hamper the access by poor rural communities who cannot access technology. It is the responsibility of vice-chancellors and university management teams and not the state to offer tangible operational plans on how the Free Fee dispensation for the poor will be operationalised.

Each university is to develop and communicate an operational plan in line with the resourcing at its disposal.

We call on universities to:

We call on the USAF not to overstep its own mandate but to respect the statutory mandate of university councils in terms of the various statutory provisions of the higher education sector. Executive director, HETN