Fee crisis a threat to Rhodes survival

Rhodes students are gearing up for further furious protests on their return in mid-July after the university withheld the academic results of 1 660 students who had defaulted on fee payments.

The 1 660 students – some 20% of the student body – owe the university R86.6million for this year alone, leaving the university in dire financial straits.

The university announced earlier this week that those who owed more than 50% of their fees would not get their results.

An activist organisation, Rhodes Asinamali, labelled the university’s actions as “malicious” and “anti-poor”.

In a statement, it demanded that all results be immediately released and that the university provide a full breakdown of its financial position and how many students could not pay fees.

It called on students to mobilise for a mass demonstration on July 22.

The Rhodes SRC has also called on the university to revisit its decision and to make appropriate arrangements with financially strapped students.

But the university says that if fees are not paid soon, it could grind to a halt.

It would not be able to pay staff salaries, purchase food to cook in the dining halls or pay Makana municipality for water or electricity, the university administration said in response to e-mailed questions.

“This will have devastating effects for the town of Grahamstown, where the university provides most of the GDP .”

It said the bulk of the money was owed by students who had paid a 10% registration fee and then nothing more, or who had made a payment plan with the university and then reneged on payments.

To make matters worse, there was an outstanding fee debt of almost R235-million from previous years.

A further R140-million is still owed by students who are honouring their longterm payment plans with the university.

These include students who had, for instance, crafted agreements to pay fees over 10 months of the academic year.

Rhodes’s cashflow was significantly impacted when it agreed last year to easier payment schemes for students in the face of the #feesmustfall protests.

These included no fee increases and reducing the minimum initial payment from 50% to 10%.

The university said it needed some R17million a month to meet its bare basic recurring obligations such as salaries and food bills. “Cashflow is precarious.”

The university said it would not be able to afford another 0% increase on fees unless the government provided another 100% shortfall payment.

While the university would be able to pay staff salaries at the end of this month, it reiterated there was a very thin financial cushion.

“The financial situation is tenuous and the university is grappling with this internally,” it said.

But Rhodes assured returning students that they would not be excluded from their residences or denied access to tuition.

Students have been expressing their anger on social media since the news broke. But university spokeswoman Catherine Deiner said in a statement posted on social media that under the current funding model no university could function without fees.

She urged students whose results had been withheld to contact the Rhodes fees office to discuss a way forward.

The university said that protest action could make no difference.

“If the students force a shutdown then this will make little difference as, without fees, we cannot operate anyway.

“Protests directed at the university have no traction in the context of the university simply having no money to keep operations going.”