Wits resolves to register all students who applied for assistance
Yet another meeting
between the Wits management Members and Students’ Representative Council
deadlocked on Tuesday evening.
Wits spokesperson
Shirona Patel says management made the commitment to assist all qualifying
students on the list of 300 put forward by the SRC.
The SRC accepted the concession but persisted with their other demands.
The management resolved to allow all qualifying students who applied to the Wits Hardship Fund and the 300 put forward by the SRC would be allowed to register.
“We remain committed to enabling as many students as possible to register, provided that these students have applied for the 2021 academic year, meet the academic requirements, and can be accommodated within the resources that we have available.
“To this end, Wits received 1 351 requests for financial assistance from the Wits Hardship Fund. To date, 834 students have been assisted and have been able to register for the academic year. We are working on a case by case basis through the remaining 517 applications and commit to processing them before this Friday,” says Patel.
She says despite the concession made, the SRC will continue with its protest.
The University has so far registered 97% of all full-time students.
“The target for 2021 is an average of around 37 500 full-time students. The closing date for undergraduate registrations is Friday, 19 March 2021. There are three more postgraduate intakes in April, July and September.”
In a presentation to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training, the University indicated that it doesn’t have the capacity to fund students who don’t qualify for NSFAS.
“Wits does not have the financial capacity to continue funding students who do not qualify for NSFAS, including the large cohort of missing middle students, given that the subsidy is flat (in real terms) and the University is making an increasing number of concessions each year to assist students.
“NSFAS provides financial assistance to qualifying students with a combined household income of up to R350 000 per annum,Wits has a large cohort of missing middle students who do not qualify for NSFAS funding.”
