Protesting students from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University have just under two weeks to get their act together and go back to classes or the university will lose 2016 as an academic year altogether.
Worst case scenario, this means examinations and graduations for 2016 could be cancelled.
The university has been on shut down since early last week and continues to stay closed despite the Student Representative Council’s (SRC) view that classes should resume. University management do not think it is safe enough for students to return to the institution’s five campuses.
Other student formations are opposed to the university re-opening and are protesting under the banner of the #FeesMustFall movement.
Since last week, nine students have been arrested following protests to the Boardwalk entertainment premises which turned violent.
At a media briefing on Tuesday and responding to a question from the African News Agency (ANA), Acting Vice Chancellor, Dr Sibongile Muthwa, said that the university had a timeframe of two weeks to get the ball rolling again and if classes did not resume, drastic measures would have to be implemented.
“The activities, the exams, the preparations, the graduations and all things that were meant to be finalised in 2016, would have to move to 2017. It means that a number of students who were meant to graduate, will not. We have been trying to convince our students to see sense, that none of the issues they are raising should prevent us from resuming the academic programme. The issues they are raising we are committed to addressing while the academic programme is continuing,” said Muthwa.
Muthwa said that interdicting protesting students would be a “last resort” for the university.
Muthwa added that the eight percent proposed increase made by government did not impact the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NFSAS) and the “missing middle” category of students and that these students’ would not pay fees more than the 2015 baseline.
“A fee increase will not impact negatively on the poor and the missing middle students since the government will make up the difference of up to 8 percent..so we have been persuading our students that it is wise for us to actually take advantage of the 8 percent,” she said.
Minister of Higher Education, Blade Nzimande previously announced that universities could set their own 2017 fee increases up to a maximum of eight percent, but that poor students and those whose household income fell below the R600,000 threshold, would be exempt.
NMMU Financial Executive Director, Michael Monaghan said following #FeesMustFall last year, the university had implemented interventions through a Financial Aid Task Team.
Monaghan said the university had assisted more than 5,000 students who did not have to pay the minimum down payments.
“We had a shortfall of cashflow at around R30 million at the end of February, so I’m just detailing some of the impacts. At the end of August the institution was still owed just short of R200 million in terms of outstanding tuition.”
“Going forward we looked at how a 0 percent and how an 8 percent increase would impact the university, but in terms of the best case, an 8 percent, we would still be over a three-year period in a deficit position at an operational level. But we feel at least that would be the minimum [in which] we could increase our fees to make interventions,” said Monaghan
Meanwhile, a petition on petitions24.com -“Unlawful Protests violating our right to education”- outlined that the prevention of students from attending lecture classes at NMMU was a violation of a constitutional right.
“We are missing lectures and tests. As the silent and intimidated majority of the university students, we do not condone this unlawful behaviour and believe that the university should be protecting the rights of the majority of our students, rather than pandering to the whims of a small group of unlawful attention seekers,” read the petition.
The petition is expected to handed over to university management and forms part of intended legal action.
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