The Student Representative Council at the University of Pretoria (UP) have recently released a memorandum on the issues concerning the funding of students pursuing a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE). They say that majority of the PCGE students are without funding after they were "dropped financially by NSFAS/DHET."
The National Student Financial Aid Scheme, commonly known as NSFAS, is a government bursary which is available to underprivileged South African students who are looking to study at a public university or TVET College. NSFAS provides funding for registration, tuition and allowances.
Postgraduate Certificate in Education
The SRC feels that the University have not addressed the financial struggles which these students are facing and says that this "continues to fuel student anger." The SRC together with the PGCE students say they have been calling for the reversal of the decision by NSFAS to stop funding PGCE however they have not received any support from the University.
A petition was started by the PGCE students which garnered over 5 000 signatures. The SRC says that this petition shone light on those students who have signed lease agreements with private accommodations but are now stranded and indebted to the accommodations and are facing eviction as they do not have the funds to pay.
The SRC says that they have continuously tried to engage on this matter with the university and NSFAS directly. In their second-quarter report the SRC was able to engage the NSFAS CEO on this matter as well as other NSFAS related issues and the CEO indicated that they would receive a response to this by the end of June.
They say that they have however been able to assist some of the PGCE students financially through the UP Financial Aid. They have urged LLB and PGCE students to apply for the UP Financial Aid on their UP Portal.
They have also made the following demands:
- PGCE students should be able to do their third term practicals from 3 August to 18 September in their respective local home schools where they are located. The SRC says the reason for this is that due to online learning and the decision taken by NSFAS/DHET many students are studying from home.
- They request that the WIL office renders online mentoring lectures and organizes with the allocated mentors a surprise lecture.
- UP management must incur the rental fees of all the PGCE students who signed their private accommodation lease before the announcement that these courses would no longer be funded.
- They also continue to demand the reversal of the decision taken by NSFAS/DHET to stop funding LLB and PGCE students and that the University support this reversal.
