University of Pretoria spokesperson Rikus Delport, said on Tuesday, that about 800 students who had been funded by the scheme had been left in limbo after the scheme discovered they did not qualify for the funding.
Delport said more than 35 000 students were in debt to UP since the end of December last year and that this debt has accumulated over the last ten years. The historical student debt to UP has been worsened by the additional R530 million students owed to the university from the beginning of the year.
“The institution is currently continuing to seek alternative funding options through our funders and donors to assist students with historical debt. We will also continue to monitor the situation closely and deal with the issues within our available resources while at the same time doing everything we can to ensure no deserving student is left behind,” he said.
In an effort to alleviate the situation, students have set up a #UPToia programme which intends to raise R100 million for those students in need of financial assistance.
This follows a three-year campaign that was launched last year to raise additional money for the UP Alma Mater Fund, that supported the financially struggling students, in addition to a R1.1 million donation UP SRC received from the Motsepe Foundation.
In a related event, students at the Ga-Rankuwa based Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University reportedly owed R854 million, while students at the Tshwane University of Technology similarly were in debt amounting to hundreds of millions.
Sefako Makgatho University spokesperson, Lusani Netshitomboni, said the students’ historical debt stood at more than R350m as of the beginning of this year and was growing.
“The university was also providing merit award/tuition waiver for those who are academically performing well (as well as) funding of missing middle by some funders, for instance Health and Welfare Sector Education and Training Authority and Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases,” he said.
This comes on the heels of recent protests by students, both at UP as well as Sefako Makgatho, in relation to the non-payment of allowances by the NSFAS scheme.
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