No walk-in registrations will be accepted – Wits, UJ and Stellenbosch warn
Johannesburg – No walk-in registrations for the 2018 academic year will be accepted, the University of Witwatersrand (Wits), Stellenbosch University (SU) and the University of Johannesburg (UJ) warned on Thursday.
This, after EFF leader Julius Malema called on matriculants, who had passed in previous years but couldn't afford university fees, to report to academic institutions.
Universities South Africa, representing 27 universities nationally, has since called Malema's statement "reckless".
In a short statement, Wits Registrar Carol Crosley said the university had already filled its 5 664 full-time first-year capacity, after receiving 56 901 applications in 2017.
The closing date for applications was September 30, 2017.
"Over enrolment has a significant impact on the academic integrity of the university's academic programme," Crosley warned.
"It stretches the university's human resources capacity (affecting workloads of lecturers, teaching and administrative staff); and impacts on infrastructure as the university only has a defined number of teaching venues."
Meanwhile, SU has encouraged matriculants, who had not applied to any university, to submit their details to the Department of Higher Education's Central Applications Clearing House.
SU simply cannot accommodate [walk-in] applications, the university said in a Facebook post.
Gr 12 learners of 2017 who have not applied at any university, but who may now qualify for the new financial support, should submit their details online to the Department of Higher Education’s Central Applications Clearing House (CACH): https://t.co/TBtZYIifbw. pic.twitter.com/65kaQtk37F— Stellenbosch Univ (@StellenboschUni) January 4, 2018
UJ's vice-chancellor Tshilidzi Marwala said, while the university congratulated matriculants for completing their final school examinations, the university "does not, under any circumstances, accept on-campus late application enquiries (walk-ins)".
All applicants who have been accepted for a programme of study at UJ will receive official confirmation of their final admission status via email by January 8, Marwala said.
Malema's comments followed President Jacob Zuma's announcement, just before the ANC's 54th elective conference, that all students with a joint family income less than R350 000 per annum, would receive free higher education.
Zuma also said student funding would be increased to include stipends for books, food, travel and accommodation, and that the support for universities would be increased to 1% of GDP per annum.
In his New Year's statement, Malema said, in 2018, all academically deserving students should be freely admitted to South African universities and Further Education and Training (FET) colleges.
"We call upon all those who passed matric extremely well in the past, and found themselves as petrol attendants, retail or security workers because they could not afford university fees, to report to the academic institution of their choice next year," he said.
"The EFF will be at the gates of all learning institutions to ensure that priority is not only given to those who can afford to pay."
