Many students enrolled at universities in the 2024 academic year will require accommodation. However, the availability of accommodation remains a challenge around South Africa.
The Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) has been inundated with a staggering 72,145 residency applications for the upcoming academic year of 2024, while only having 15,291 available spaces.
Reports indicate that approximately 100 students are now living with all their belongings in the institution's multipurpose hall. Students have indicated that the allowance for accommodation provided by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) is not enough to cover rent in Cape Town.
NSFAS provides students living in accredited private accommodation with a capped accommodation allowance of up to R50,000 in metro areas and R41,000 in all other areas per annum.
University spokesperson Lauren Kansley said some of these students did not meet the academic requirements to stay in a university residence or applied too late to be placed.
As of 9 February 2024, the University Owned Accredited and Leased residences have reached their full capacity.
Despite an increase of over 2,000 beds from the previous year, the demand for student accommodation greatly outweighs what the university can provide. This challenge is not unique to CPUT and is affecting several institutions around the country.
Our University is not immune to the national challenge of shortages of student accommodation in the higher education sector
CPUT says the Department of Student Life & Residential Services is diligently collaborating with the University’s Financial Aid office to ensure funding for qualifying students on the residence waiting list.
This is so that these students may be considered by NSFAS for their accredited accommodation.
They added that the NSFAS-accredited accommodation is managed by NSFAS and not CPUT.
The university further clarified that accommodation placement processes are based on their placement policy and not on a first-come first-served basis. The policy requires that the applicant has applied and qualified for residence.
Furthermore, we do not practise a first-come first-served principle with placement processes.
The university has called on staff and students to support their continued efforts to provide equitable processes for residence placements in 2024.
