Walter Sisulu University has smoothed stormy relations with its students and registration processes are ready to proceed today across all campuses.
Special cases committees will be set up to deal with registration issues at campus level.
The institution temporarily closed its Mthatha campus and registrations at the Butterworth campus were halted last week due to student unrest.
The protests followed deadlocks in talks over:
- A demand to register first-year students and continuing students who qualify for National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) funds without the minimum initial payment (MIP). Management said this went against university rules and regulations;
- A call by student leaders for “renegotiation” of student debt repayments because students were unhappy about the terms; and
- A demand that BTech students be allowed to register without paying a registration fee.
In a statement sent to the Dispatch last Friday, university spokeswoman Angela Church said after frank and fruitful engagement between management, labour unions and the Student Representative Council (SRC) on February 12, a number of resolutions were taken to iron out the registration problems.
“The spirit of the meeting was primarily to seek collectively, solutions to a number of issues regarding the 2015 student registration at WSU.”
At the meeting it was agreed that special cases committees would be set up at each campus.
Terms of reference would be drafted, with input from the SRCs, to determine the scope and powers of such committees.
The committees would be empowered with decision-making capabilities and accountability at campus level.
“It was noted that continuing students were a priority to ensure throughput and the unfunded BTech students would be considered by such committees,” said Church.
On the issue of first-year students who do not have the MIP for registration, Church said given WSU’s precarious financial position, prospective students could not be absorbed into the registration process without payment of the MIP.
It was agreed that the 2012-2013 cohort of continuing students who qualified for residence pre-allocation but who were not approved for NSFAS funding in 2015 should be allocated rooms in residence, excluding private residences.
The parties also agreed that the interpretation of interim management committee resolutions made last week around 2015 registration, should be monitored and evaluated.
South African Student Congress provincial chairman Buyambo Mantashe said although the institution was progressing in terms of dealing with these issues, “reality was these were only short-term solutions”.
“For us it is victory to our struggle when students can proceed with their studies. However, the university is not addressing the core issue which is maladministration,” Mantashe said.
Mantashe said the special committees would be dealing with the issue of MIP for continuing students.
“We are still waiting to get the guidelines that will determine the threshold for the MIP,” Mantashe said. — arethal@dispatch.co.za
Registration all round at WSU
Special cases committees will be set up to deal with registration issues at campus level.
The institution temporarily closed its Mthatha campus and registrations at the Butterworth campus were halted last week due to student unrest.
The protests followed deadlocks in talks over:
In a statement sent to the Dispatch last Friday, university spokeswoman Angela Church said after frank and fruitful engagement between management, labour unions and the Student Representative Council (SRC) on February 12, a number of resolutions were taken to iron out the registration problems.
“The spirit of the meeting was primarily to seek collectively, solutions to a number of issues regarding the 2015 student registration at WSU.”
At the meeting it was agreed that special cases committees would be set up at each campus.
Terms of reference would be drafted, with input from the SRCs, to determine the scope and powers of such committees.
The committees would be empowered with decision-making capabilities and accountability at campus level.
“It was noted that continuing students were a priority to ensure throughput and the unfunded BTech students would be considered by such committees,” said Church.
On the issue of first-year students who do not have the MIP for registration, Church said given WSU’s precarious financial position, prospective students could not be absorbed into the registration process without payment of the MIP.
It was agreed that the 2012-2013 cohort of continuing students who qualified for residence pre-allocation but who were not approved for NSFAS funding in 2015 should be allocated rooms in residence, excluding private residences.
The parties also agreed that the interpretation of interim management committee resolutions made last week around 2015 registration, should be monitored and evaluated.
South African Student Congress provincial chairman Buyambo Mantashe said although the institution was progressing in terms of dealing with these issues, “reality was these were only short-term solutions”.
“For us it is victory to our struggle when students can proceed with their studies. However, the university is not addressing the core issue which is maladministration,” Mantashe said.
Mantashe said the special committees would be dealing with the issue of MIP for continuing students.
“We are still waiting to get the guidelines that will determine the threshold for the MIP,” Mantashe said. — arethal@dispatch.co.za
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