The visit provided a platform for students in queues for various financial aid support to highlight their challenges with the Minister, while University Management also had an opportunity to give updates on ongoing efforts to enhance student access and success.
Among the highlights of the visit, as expressed by Dr Nkabane, were the University’s state-of-the-art Science Centre, effective student housing management strategies, strengthened articulation with TVET colleges, hydrogen support projects, and the institution’s strategic partnership with the South African International Maritime Institute (SAIMI).
However, challenges such as the increasing number of applications versus available capacity, accommodation shortages, and student financial aid concerns, were also raised.
Dr Nkabane hit out at universities who charge prospective students an application fee to study at their institutions. She said universities are becoming a joke, as they know how many students they can admit but they keep taking application fees from students, with some universities charging R200 per application.
This, she said, while knowing very well they do not have capacity to accommodate them all. She referred to a media report on this practice in January, which alluded to “thugs in red gowns”.
In January, prospective students expressed their anger on social media at the amount of money that universities are making from application fees, while students were being rejected due to a shortage of space.
Minister Nkabane said: “We need to sit down with USAf (vice-chancellors’ association, Universities South Africa) and student formations to come up with a solution.” She explained that the country has a Central Applications System, but universities were not coming on board.
“We cannot be seen as thugs. We cannot take advantage of the vulnerable – we are messing (with) our children on the ground.”
Mandela University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sibongile Muthwa, explained that the University does not charge application fees, to which the Minister and her delegation applauded. The University did a presentation on the number of applications it had received and provided an update on how many students had been registered for the first year.
Dr Nkabane further engaged directly with students and the Student Representative Council (SRC), who echoed concerns about limited on-campus and accredited off-campus accommodation.
She also visited the University’s Financial Aid office, where she assessed service delivery and engaged with students in the queue. In response, the Minister committed to deploying a delegation from the Department of Higher Education and Training to address outstanding student access and funding issues over a period of one week.
The SRC’s Lathitha Mbuzwana pointed out that the organisation had launched a fund to help students get out of debt, also making a plea to the Minister and other stakeholders for donations towards it.
SRC Secretary-General Buhle Mchunu said that some students who are funded by NSFAS are suddenly defunded during the academic year as “it is doing verifications”. This results in accredited off-campus accommodation owners not getting paid rent for a few months by NSFAS, with affected students facing the threat of eviction.
She added that these students, through no fault of their own, end up in debt and this affects their registration the following academic year.
Several other challenges around NSFAS were raised with the Minister, who indicated that the Ministry takes governance issues seriously, and she has therefore appointed a new NSFAS Board.
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The University’s Vice-Chancellor expressed appreciation for the Minister’s visit and welcomed the proactive nature of her campaign, reaffirming the institution’s commitment to working collaboratively with government to ensure student success.
“As the University Management team, we communicated with the Minister and her team on the matters that we have been able to resolve and those that are still under consideration, which range from the finalisation of funding and registration, and settling the issues around accommodation,” Prof Muthwa said.
“We have pointed out to our students, the Minister and the colleagues from NSFAS and the Department, that none of these problems can be solved without collaboration among all of us. Fortunately, our University has a very strong culture of engagement with our students.”