University of Pretoria SRC Rejects Fee Increases

The University of Pretoria recently announced they will implement increases on registration and tuition fees for the 2023 academic year, a decision that has not been well received by the university’s Student Representative Council (SRC).

In a statement published on Saturday this past week, the SRC said that they strongly reject the increase on registration fees. 

The UP SRC and students vehemently reject the University of Pretoria’s decision to increase registration fees for both undergraduate and postgraduate by 50% and 33% respectively. The decision taken by the university is anti-poor and the Students of UP reject it.

Naeem Moola, the university's Director of Finance, informed students of the fee increase in an announcement on Saturday. According to the communiqué from Moola, the registration cost for undergraduate students would rise from R5 000 to R7 500, and for postgraduate students, it would rise from R7 500 to R10 000.

International postgraduate students would now be required to pay half of the annual tuition, or R40,000, while international undergraduate students would be required to pay R40,000.

“The University of Pretoria has not increased the first payment, which is generally due at registration each year and which forms part of the annual tuition fee, since 2016. This was done to assist students who have been experiencing financial difficulties. The increase was further delayed in 2020, 2021 and 2022 owing to the pandemic and the economic hardships experienced by students,” Moola stated.

But according to the SRC, the majority of the students had continued to pay the university their full tuition for all of those academic years.

“Furthermore, the reality is that the majority of students and their families faced greater economic difficulty due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but the institution still received tuition fees and state subsidies,” said the SRC.

In addition to this, Moola announced an increase in registration fees for 2024, when postgraduate students would have to pay R12 500 and undergraduate students would have to pay R10,000.