The University of the Witwatersrand SRC is pleading with the government for the guarantees needed to enable poor students to register.
The student representative council said students were being prevented from registering due to historical debts, and it had approached Wits management "in an attempt to persuade them to allow students to register".
It had then written to the interim ministerial task team on funding, "asking them to plead with the president to sign off the guarantee universities claim they need in order to register students".
The SRC said on Sunday that management said it was "approaching a financial deficit of R56m and they cannot afford to incur the cost of the historical debts‚ which amount to R400m".
It said management’s position was that "if they are to allow students to register without a guarantee from the state, they would be breaking the law in terms of the credit act".
"In the initial meeting they told us that they are meeting with the Department of Higher Education and Training to convince them to grant a guarantee so that they can go ahead and register students‚" the SRC said.
"Their report of that meeting was that [the department] denied them that guarantee, in the argument that they have done all they could with the concessions that are already on the table for NSFAS [National Student Financial Aid Scheme] students."
Wits management said on Sunday that vice-chancellors had met the department last week seeking "clarity on the support to students in the ‘missing middle’ with historic debt".
"Wits recommended that students in this category be fully supported. The [department], however‚ indicated that there were no funds available and that students in the ‘missing middle’ are responsible for their own respective historical debt‚" a statement said.
"The department recommended that universities assist as far as possible to register academically successful students with historical debt if such students (a) settle their debt or (b) commit to payment plans. These financial concessions are to be undertaken without breaching the fiduciary responsibilities and without compromising the financial sustainability of universities."
Wits management made the following interim suggestions:
• "All students who owe R10,000 or less will have their debt automatically rolled into their 2017 fees and will be allowed to register; and
• "Students who have debt higher than R10,000 will be requested to pay half the outstanding balance and enter into a payment plan for the remainder of the funds‚ before being allowed to register."
The SRC said that "if students who owe R10,000 and less are able to register‚ we are then going to revise our initial list of the SRC Humanitarian Fund so that we can assist with the 50% of debt required".
It would also step up efforts to get "different stakeholders to contribute towards raising funds" by contributing to this fund.
The SRC also said it would "fight for the extension of late registrations so that we buy ourselves more time to raise the money needed".
TMG Digital
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