Durban - A UKZN medical school hopeful – who secured a court order last week to keep a spot open for her pending a bid for her application to be considered on her 2014 matric results – could not be considered at all, the university said on Tuesday.
This was because, on her own version, Chavara Naidoo – a former Crawford College straight-A pupil who dropped out of medicine at the University of Cape Town last year – could not be defined as a “mature student” and “varsity policy precluded her from being assessed on her matric results”.
These were the submissions of College of Health Services academic administrative officer Suvani Chetty in an affidavit filed in the Durban High Court opposing Naidoo’s application in which she is seeking that her UCT record, showing she wrote one set of exams before deregistering, be disregarded by UKZN and her application be assessed only on her matric results.
Read: Straight-A student takes on UKZN
The Mercury reported on her application when it first came to court last week when she obtained an undertaking from the university that it would keep a position open for her.
Naidoo claimed that the university was treating her as a “mature student” – one who had already completed or partly completed a degree – and was demanding her academic record from UCT which she could not produce.
She said she had left UCT after struggling to cope with studying and living on her own and suffering from depression.
Chetty, however, said she had been “less than honest” about this and she had now produced a document showing that she had written exams in semester one, passing three and failing one, “and it would be ludicrous to ignore this”.
Chetty said the UKZN admissions policy stipulated that applicants who had studied at any other tertiary institution must present their academic records.
Naidoo had not and on her application form she had answered “n/a” (not applicable) to a question about post-school studies.
Chetty said the committee of deans of the medical schools of all the universities also had a policy of not allowing transfers between the schools.
That was because they were regulated by the Health Professions Council of South Africa, which determined student numbers “and the accreditation policy would be thrown into complete disarray” if it were allowed.
“Should someone fail any courses, they are required to do them at the university they are registered at, if so permitted. If they fail, they are not permitted to begin again at another.”
Chetty said “thousands of children apply for very limited positions” at the medical schools and the academic requirements were exceptionally high.
“The mature student category allows for students who did not succeed at matriculation stage but demonstrate exceptional academic results at university later, an opportunity to further study medicine. She is not a mature student as defined.
“The other category is the NSC category which applies to people who sit for the Grade 12 examinations during the year of application. She also does not qualify in that,” Chetty said.
“On the circumstances of her case, she cannot succeed in this court application … or in her admission application.”
In argument, advocate Murray Pitman, for the university, said holding open a post for Naidoo was prejudicing other applicants because the frantic allocation system, in which offers were made, accepted or rejected, had to be put on hold.
But Naidoo’s advocate, Indhrasen Pillay, said that was not so. The quota system dictated that only 10 positions could be allocated to Indians and then the undertaking only applied if those posts were not filled by others more qualified that her.
“Essentially only one post is affected,” he argued.
Judge Jacqui Henriques “reluctantly” ordered the university to again reserve a position for her, on the same terms, until Monday, when a judge will be allocated to hear final arguments which are expected to centre on alleged discrepancies in various university policies.
The medical school admits 210 new students each year, reserving 20 places for students from SADC countries.
Of the 190 left, 38 are reserved for mature students.
The balance of 152 are broken down into 76 who are pre-selected on Grade 11 results and 76 selected on matric results.
Of these, 76 have to be black, 20 Indian, 10 coloured, two white and two places are reserved for ‘others’.
A further 42 places are reserved for applicants from quintile 1 and 2 schools, the poorest of poor schools in the province.
The Mercury