The North West University is now working to provide hundreds of beds for students as the University faces a student accommodation issue, while the country faces a pandemic. At the beginning of the 2020 academic year, reports of the student accommodation issues at the campus came to light as students complained that a lack of accommodation was seen as they wished to embark on there 2020 academic year.
The University is now trying to handle this problem and is setting out to start a housing project which will provide 1728 beds to students on it's Mahikeng Campus. This project is set to take two years to complete.
This housing project will see six students residences with guard houses and recreational areas be built. In a press release from NWU, they said, "Currently the NWU accredits off-campus accommodation providers to ensure suitable housing for its students. The institution says it will continue to do so, as the student accommodation need is great."
Off-campus accommodation was however one of the issues students were seen up in flames about. At the beginning of the year it was said that some students were stranded due to the administration allegedly withdrawing the lease agreement with all private accommodation.
NWU's Vice-Chancellor, Prof Dan Kgwadi, said earlier this year that the University is not able to support all 12,000 of it's students with accommodation on campus as the campus only had 3000 beds available.
On 30 June 2020, Higher Education Minister, Blade Nzimande, approved the R436 million project. The University says it will make sure these funds are appropriately distributed and that they aim to avoid overspending.
“It is the biggest project in the history of the university, so we will make sure that we stick to the programme and hand over the project on time," said NWU contracts manager and principal agent Retha Kooij-Kok.
SCC chairperson Theo Seepamore said, "The project will assist students to have decent accommodation on campus, which will give them a good opportunity to do well in their studies. Students will be able to use university facilities optimally. Most students want to stay on campus, but that has not been possible because of a shortage of beds on campus. This will also address the issue of students’ safety and security, which has been a major challenge recently".
Students were also concerned about security issues as they were getting robbed regularly. They have also said that the areas surrounding the Mahikeng campus were not safe and even wanted the police to step in to address this safety issue.
Read the press release from NWU here
