Registration for the 2021 academic year are not going as smoothly at the Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT) due to protests, both involving students and staff.
Students of MUT are protesting as these students demand free education and for historic debt to be written off. Students have also demanded that the missing middle population is provided for.
The Student Representative Council at the University has said that thousands of students remain unregistered.
Staff members at the University have also been striking for wage increases and this might cause problems and delays when it comes to the registration process.
On Wednesday, the University shared the following:
... the University wishes to inform you that registration of new and returning students is delayed due to ongoing negotiations between management and labour unions.
The University continued to say that it is hopeful that the meeting will generate positive results for the University business to get back to normal.
Minister Nzimande then responded and said that he is disturbed and concerned about the protests which take place at higher education institutions at the beginning of each year and that the department is doing their best to resolve the problems students are protesting about.
The department is in the process of collecting information and in talks with management when it comes to the small fraction of students that have been registered.
My approach now is to establish a Task Team that's not going to re-invent the wheel, but to look into the Heher commission and the Ministerial Task Team recommendations.
MUT is the last of the Universities in the country to be finishing the 2020 academic year.
Nzimande said that 80% of the students at MUT are NSFAS students. This would mean that their fees are being paid for, along with their registration fees.
Cabinet has asked the Minister to provide them with a comprehensive review of student funding, which Nzimande says won't be his first.
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