Students happy to complete registration for 2021
Many university students all across the country struggled to register for the academic year 2021, due to outstanding fees and non-clearance letters from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), but the situation was finally resolved.
Dr Blade Nzimande, minister of higher education, science and innovation, formally announced and confirmed in a statement on 8 March 2021 that NSFAS would fund all returning NSFAS beneficiaries who meet the academic and other relevant criteria to continue their studies.
The North-West University (NWU) extended the registration period a number of times to accommodate students who were facing registration challenges.There has been much progress with registration since the start of the semester’s second quarter on 5 April, and most students were able to register and catch up with their schoolwork.
NWU spokesperson Louis Jacobs said the university cleared as many NSFAS-funded senior students as possible in advance, even before getting funding confirmation from NSFAS. They did this based on their own assessment regarding academic performance and number of years in study.
“To demonstrate our appreciation of the problems that our students encounter, especially during this pandemic, we have taken the risk of using the university’s limited cash reserves, approximately R250 million, to cover for NSFAS allowances,” he said.
Zanele Mhlambi (21), a communications student at the NWU Potchefstroom campus, said that she was struggling to get a clearance letter because she has had outstanding debt at the university since 2019, even though she is a NSFAS-funded student.
“It was frustrating, actually, having to wait all those weeks not knowing if I would get cleared in the end. It was difficult seeing other students rejoicing each week about being cleared and registered and I had to wait because I could not afford to pay off my debt,” Mhlambi said.
NWU third-year student in BA psychology, geography and environmental management, Junior Makupula (23), said initially he was not able to register due to outstanding fees.
“The process of registering was a gruelling one. I had outstanding fees, which made online registration impossible. Fortunately, I did not miss out on anything. Most lecturers had these registration problems in mind and started their work accordingly,” he said.
Rebecca Mhlambi (60), a parent of an NWU student said: “It was very saddening that my child could not get registered, but things finally worked out. Seeing my daughter stress out like that and knowing that there was nothing I could do was really depressing. I am just happy she can finally finish off her studies and obtain her degree.”
Junior Makupula talks about his registration struggles in the sound clip above.