DA urges Naledi Pandor to clarify Unisa undertaking 25,000 extra students

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has called on the minister of higher education, Naledi Pandor, to provide clarity on the University of South Africa’s (Unisa) undertaking to admit 25,000 extra students this year.

As part of a concession to protesting students, Unisa announced it would accept 25,000 additional students this year.

In a statement on Monday, the DA’s Belinda Bozzoli said: “This is the equivalent of the total first-year admissions to Wits, UCT, UJ, and Stellenbosch combined.”

Bozzoli said while the DA fully supports students’ rights to access higher education, it questions how exactly the university will fund and cater for the additional students and whether the department of higher education and training would provide it with proper support.

“The DA calls on Minister of Higher Education Naledi Pandor to explain how Unisa has been permitted to take in the additional students in spite of strict agreements between her department and universities as to the number of students they may admit, and to reassure the public that both NSFAS  and the university will be provided with additional funding to cover these costs.

“While the NSFAS money might be found, as it has in the past, there is every probability that the university and the ministry intends for this massive increase to take place without major additional resources,” Bozzoli said.

The DA MP said since the increase was extremely large, it would need to be funded on multiple levels, which included thousands of additional bursaries provided by NSFAS would be required to cover those whose incomes were below R300,000.

“Significant additional academic, administrative, and IT staff will be required to cope with the numbers and 25,000 additional course packs and multiple other resources, including study centres and library facilities, will need to be provided by the university,” Bozzoli said.

The MP further said the increase would have a knock-on effect in future years and pressure would be on the university to continue with these larger numbers in future.

“Unisa is already a university in trouble. There is a finite number of academics, and inside sources say that the number dwindles every month as staff who leave are hardly ever replaced. Staff morale is low and there are many tensions on the campus.

“These kinds of massive increases in student numbers require proper planning and administration and should not be undertaken lightly. The DA will continue to monitor the developments at Unisa and awaits further clarity from the minister.”

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.