UWC, students agree on free registration
Cape Town - The University of the Western Cape's Vice-Chancellor Tyrone Pretorius has agreed to meet some of the demands made by students at his institution, following weeks of national protests under the slogan #FeesMustFall.
Student Representative Council (SRC) president Akhona Landu said a meeting was held on Tuesday night during which Pretorius addressed their demands.
"The meeting resolved that there will be free registration for all students in the year 2016 moving forward. Students will be registering once at the beginning of the year," Landu said.
Pretorius had also agreed to the demand that the university's executive management should not get any further salary increments, she said.
"This will be sent to the University Council for ratification."
On the matter of outsourcing, the university said it would undertake a feasibility study to address the concerns around saving and curbing unnecessary exorbitant expenditure, Landu said.
"The SRC vows to closely monitor this process so as to ensure positive outcomes indeed emerge from this process."
Exams
It was agreed that end of year examinations would begin on November 9 until November 28. A re-evaluation period would then kick in from November 30 to December 9.
"Furthermore, it was agreed that the scheduled December graduation will continue as planned in December. The date will be communicated in due course," she said.
Regarding the national call for free quality education for those who could not afford the fees, Pretorius agreed to assign a task team to explore the university's options, Landu said.
The task team's findings would be submitted to the Department of Higher Education.
A number of other matters were discussed at the meeting, including the issue of employment equity at the institution, the possibility of students with outstanding fees still graduating, and combating the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) shortfall in 2014.
Pretorius had undertaken to include the SRC in further discussions and decisions regarding each of the matters raised.
This article first appeared on News24 – see here.
