The University of Johannesburg (UJ) has confirmed that registration will not be suspended, following protests by students who were not able to secure funds from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).
On 27 January, A handful of UJ students briefly interrupted the registration process at the Auckland Park campus while appealing to the university not to exclude the 2 100 students who are not able to register due to lack of funding.
The protestors sang, blew on vuvuzelas and held placards that read “away with academic exclusion, away,” and “UJ stop buying cars! Fund NSFAS”.
Speaking at the media briefing, UJ’s Deputy Vice-chancellor Tinyiko Maluleke said registration had to commence regardless.
“This is about 50 students who want 49 000 other students to stop being registered. We don’t think that it is reasonable, firstly because the students are complaining to the wrong people,” Maluleke explained.
“We don’t think that it is reasonable to halt registration especially when it is not clear whether the national department of higher education can afford us the funds that we are running short of at the moment to cover the 2100 students,” he added.
Maluleke confirmed that the university has secured funding for 7 800 students who performed exceptionally well, apart from the 2 100 students.
He also stipulated that the funds issue was not a UJ issue but that of the Department of higher education and therefore faced many tertiary institutions.
“Neither the department nor NSFAS has provided us with enough funding for students. We are actually owed R108 million from last year,” Maluleke revealed.
Registration commenced as usual at the Auckland Park Kingsway campus.
