SRC #WITSNSFAS STATEMENT: Students of the University of the Witwatersrand, The Wits SRC has successfully negotiated the ongoing issues of NSFAS students at the university. We firmly believe that what we were made to negotiate forms part of the basic responsibility and accountability on the part of the university in enabling students of the working class to enter the higher education system, which essentially transforms society. Let it be known that all the demands that were made on behalf of students by the SRC were both fair and reasonable. As the SRC, we explicitly expressed that it would be a blatant exclusion of the working class to expect students who have already proven that they are poor to miraculously find the money in order to register and secure their academic spaces, since their NSFAS applications are still pending. The university has thus agreed to meet our demand of wavering the Upfront Payment Fee for first year students. In addition, we have agreed that all returning students whose NSFAS applications are still pending come through to the SRC offices as soon as possible as these cases need to be dealt with individually and resolved. We express our commitment to ensuring that no NSFAS student be held ransom for something that is completely out of their control. We urge all students to start registering to secure both their academic as well as their residence spaces. The SRC offices have been inundated by NSFAS students who have raised concerns regarding the deliberate exclusion of NSFAS students with pending outcomes from residences both on and off campus. The university has agreed that this is unacceptable especially given the fact that students who benefit the most from staying at res are first year students. It is unfair that students who apply in advance are deprived of their right to plan for the future as the administrative process of their NSFAS applications takes an exorbitant amount of time to process. We have thus negotiated that all students who have applied for NSFAS receive their outcomes no later than Friday the 30th of January. The 828 students with outstanding fees who were given NSFAS loans in the year 2014 were actually given these loans through an over-allocation of the allotted amount that NSFAS gave the Wits Financial Aid and Scholarships Office to administer. The university has given us their word that they will cover this shortfall and takes responsibility for over allocating these funds. In as much as the SRC wants to trust in the good faith of the university, these are students’ lives we are dealing with. We are therefore unequivocally saying that we want written confirmation that the R 43 million will be settled as well as an explanation as to why these 828 students were made to sign an Acknowledgement of Debt, the likes of which only privately funded students who have failed to pay their fees would have to sign. There has been an acknowledgement of this and management has agreed that an explanation is in order. These 828 students will be treated as normal NSFAS students in 2015, this means that they will be able to register as per usual in 2015 if they have applied and meet the NSFAS criteria. The beginning of this year has been plagued by various administrative issues regarding the processing of NSFAS applications. The 30 students who were given NSFAS offers which were later retracted will now be able to pursue their studies at Wits as this was due to an administrative problem with the processing system. The SRC is serious in calling for the long term upgrade in the system that is used to process NSFAS applications, we cannot in the 21st century be having technical glitches that have detrimental effects on the lives of students. The most common of administrative issues being that of missing documents. After bringing various cases to the attention of the university, the university has agreed that all students who have outstanding documents in their NSFAS applications hand them in to Senate House 1023 where a team has been tasked specifically to process all outstanding documents until Tuesday, 27 January. We urge all students to make use of this extension to submit any outstanding documents for their NSFAS applications. Should you require any assistance you will find us in the SRC Offices located on the second floor of the Matrix. Register, and work hard! Yours in Keeping Students First, Wits Student Representative Council
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 21:54:56 +0000
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