WITS University is set on a collision course with students following its shock decision yesterday to hike fees by 8 percent next year.
The announcement, which has taken student leaders by surprise, came as the institution wound down its activities and when students left for the holidays, making it difficult for the #FeesMustFall protesters to regroup.
Wits SRC president Kefentse Mkhari said the SRC was shocked to learn of the university’s decision to increase fees despite the institution claiming it was behind students’ call for free higher education.
“The university was very opportunistic, even the timing of them releasing the statement, they obviously waited for students to leave campus so that there is no mass meeting,” Mkhari said.
The university said in a statement that it had consulted the SRC before making the decision. Mkhari said the announcement was made while the SRC was having an induction and was thus not given sufficient time to consult.
“The university tries to legitimatise its decision by saying we were part of the consultative process, while they consulted us two days before the council meeting sat,” he said. “In fact it wasn’t a consultation, it was them telling us reasons why they would be increasing fees by 8 percent,” Mkhari said.
Wits spokesperson Shirona Patel said the university had no choice but to increase fees if it were to remain financially sustainable, as academics, professional and administrative staff needed to be remunerated, books and journals needed to be bought (many in foreign currency), utilities needed to be paid and infrastructure needed to be maintained.
According to Wits, a 0 percent hike in 2017 would mean a R191 million deficit, a 6 percent hike would equate to a R90m deficit, while the planned 8 percent hike would result in a R56.5m deficit.
However, Mkhari questioned the transparency of the system used to make the decision to increase the fees.
“If they could start a poll on whether we should return to classes, why didn’t they run the same poll to judge whether fees should be increased or not, because the students are the majority of the population of the university community?” he asked.
In September, the Department of Higher Education and Training said it had recommended that universities not implement a fee hike of more than 8 percent.
“If they were genuinely concerned about these issues, they should be adding to our voices and we should all go to the state and require them to fund free higher education, because we cannot keep carrying the burden of the lack of funding that is perpetuating itself by the state,” Mkhari said. “After it had failed to add their voice to ours, they are now shifting the burden to the students.”
Wits SRC deputy secretary-general Kaamil Alli added it was unfortunate that Wits had adopted a position that was against the call for free education.
“The stance adopted by the university is in contradiction to that of the students. We had hoped they would want to show a united front with the students,” he said.
Deputy vice-chancellor Tawana Kupe could not be reached for comment.