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29 March 2019 | Story Lacea Loader

No deregistration of students at the University of the Free State (UFS) will be effected until after the Financial Appeals Committee has concluded its process on 5 April 2019.

During a meeting between the university management and the Institutional Student Representative Council (ISRC) today, the following agreement was reached:

  1. The date for the submission of appeals has been extended to Tuesday 2 April 2019 at 12:00. No further extension will be given. The application form for the Financial Appeals Committee has previously been sent to the ufs4life email addresses of all provisionally registered students.
  2. Students who have appealed their National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) outcomes will not be deregistered while awaiting the result of the outcome of their appeal.
  3. Verified final-year students who are provisionally registered will not be deregistered. This will be subject to verification by the Financial Appeals Committee. These students must also submit an appeal.
  4. All other categories of students must submit their appeals to the Financial Appeals Committee.

NB: The documentation mentioned above must be submitted to the Student Finance Office as indicated on the financial appeals form sent to students via their ufs4life email address.

The UFS has taken a pro-poor approach to assist students who are academically deserving. With this approach, the university’s fee structure is much less than that of many public institutions of higher learning in the country. Senior students are also supported through a provisional registration process that grants them the opportunity to pay a reduced amount in order to register, enabling them to fully participate in all activities while extension is provided to secure the necessary funding for their studies.

The university has made a number of concessions to ensure that students are not financially excluded during the 2019 academic year. Many of these concessions were raised by the ISRC on behalf of students and was agreed upon by the university management.  

These concessions include:

  1. Students who have confirmed NSFAS funding for 2019 with historic debt, are to secure registration. This has taken place before the announcement on 24 March 2019 by the Minister of Higher Education and Training, Naledi Pandor, that the historic debt of NSFAS students will be settled by the department.

     

  2. Students in the missing middle who received a gap grant in 2018, have been assisted to pay a lesser amount to register fully for 2019.

     

  3. Students with historic debt who are not receiving the gap grant have also been assisted to register for 2019. Acceptable payment plans for these students have been agreed upon with the university’s Student Finance Office.

     

  4. First-time entering students were assisted with a reduced first payment to enable them to register for 2019.

     

  5. Final-year students with historic debt of less than R20 000 who could not have been assisted in any of the above concessions explained above were allowed to register.

     

  6. Students who are provisionally registered and who could not find the necessary financial means, had the opportunity to submit appeals to the Financial Appeals Committee by 29 March 2019 to secure their registration. This committee comprises representatives of the university management, as well as members of the ISRC. This committee is scheduled to meet on 5 April 2019.

The above is evidence of the multi-layered efforts by the university to support academic deserving students as far as it is practically possible in order to avoid financial exclusion. Additionally, the university’s Student Finance Office has since the beginning of the academic year communicated extensively on the process with students who are at risk of being deregistered.  

Historically, less than 0,5% of registered students at the UFS are not able to find the necessary means to secure their registration.

To support students in their academic efforts, all matters pertaining to registration should be concluded by the end of the first term. A cut-off date is set by which all registration processes – including concessions – are to be concluded. This date – 31 March 2019 – has already been set in 2018, which is the result of consultation with all relevant stakeholders, including the IRSC.

This cut-off date has now been extended to Tuesday 2 April 2019 at 12:00.

Released by:

Lacea Loader (Director: Communication and Marketing)
Telephone: +27 51 401 2584 | +27 83 645 2454
Email: news@ufs.ac.za | loaderl@ufs.ac.za
Fax: +27 51 444 6393


News Archive

Researchers urged to re-emphasise regeneration of grassroots
2013-10-23

23 October 2013

Institutions of higher learning have a critical role to play in the promotion and protection of indigenous knowledge systems. This is according to Dr Mogomme Masoga, UFS alumnus and Senior Researcher with the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA).

Dr Masoga was addressing the 6th annual Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) Symposium at the University of the Free State’s Qwaqwa Campus.

“The time has come for local communities rich with knowledge to be taken seriously by the researchers doing their work in those respective communities,” argued Dr Masoga.

“Power relations between the researcher and the communities involved in the research process should be clarified. The same applies to the ownership and control of knowledge generated and documented in a community.

“There is an increasing need for democratic and participatory development in our communities. This can be achieved by giving primacy to the interests, values and aspirations of the people at large. There must be a radical move from prevailing paradigm of development that suffers from relying on coercion and authoritarianism. There is a need to associate development with social needs. This will give validity and integrity to the local communities, thereby giving confidence to the leaders and their constituencies.”

Dr Masoga said that the time has come for African universities in particular to “de-emphasise factors that monopolise attention today. Factors like debt crisis, commodity prices and foreign investment, among others, must be replaced by emphasis on the regeneration of the grassroots. Many African universities and research institutions have not lived up to their responsibilities as guiding lights to the continent. However, all is not lost.

“The current global race for knowledge works against so-called developing countries, especially in Africa. There is a far greater need to have a code of ethics drawn up for researchers engaging with local communities, to ensure the promotion and protection of indigenous knowledge systems.”

Meanwhile, a cross-section of papers were also delivered during the symposium. These ranged from Moshoeshoe’s lessons in dealing with poverty alleviation as presented by Dr Samuel Mensah, Department of Economics, to indigenous grasses of Qwaqwa by Prof Rodney Moffett, Department of Plant Sciences. Also presenting lectures were Phephani Gumbi, African Languages; Tshele Moloi, School of Mathematics; Natural Sciences and Technology Education and Dr Tom Ashafa (Plant Sciences).

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