Durban – There was relief last week for thousands of KwaZulu-Natal school-leavers who learnt they had passed the 2016 matric exams, but their battle is only half won.
More than 98 000 candidates in the province passed and almost 80 000 qualified for admission to university – with 36 139 obtaining bachelor passes and 39 507 obtaining diploma passes.
But those wanting to pursue a tertiary education are fighting among themselves as well as with prospective students from around the country and abroad, for just 25 038 spaces in first-year undergraduate programmes in KZN public universities.
Universities were again inundated with applications from prospective first-years this year.
The University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN) received about 89 700 applications for just 87 00 spaces available, spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka said.
A total of 13 700 people applied for 1 255 places to study education, the university’s most popular field of study this year. More than 11 000 people applied to study nursing and 10 250 to study social work. The schools of pharmacy, dental therapy and medicine each received more than 6 000 applications.
The Durban University of Technology (DUT) received 84 855 applications, with just 7 000 available spaces, spokesperson Sinegugu Ndlovu said.
While all its spaces had been filled, the university would consider accepting walk-in applications only if there were spaces available after registration.
At the University of Zululand (UniZulu), more than 80 000 applications were received for the 5 100 odd spaces it had available. All spaces had now been filled, spokesperson Gcinekile Nhleko said.
Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT), had 40 930 applications for 4 238 spaces. Spokesperson Bheki Hlophe said, however, that only their Nature Conservation course was full.
The Central Applications Office – which processes the applications of all first time entry undergraduate candidates to the province’s four public universities, three TVET colleges and 13 private colleges – has recorded 137 815 applicants for studies in 2017.
And, said chief executive officer George van der Ross, the office was on Monday still receiving and processing late applications and “change of minds”.
All applications received after September 30 were regarded as “late,” he said, but they were still considered if there was space available after the “on-time” applications had been considered.
“We are still receiving and processing applications and ‘change of minds’ for MUT. We are also still processing change of minds for UniZulu,” Van der Ross said. However those who wished to attend UKZN or DUT had to go directly to their respective campuses to submit late applications.
Registration at most universities only began on Monday and Van der Ross was thus not able to say how many students had actually been placed. He said UKZN, DUT, MUT and UniZulu had – as of Thursday – made a total of 23 675 offers.
“The number of offers will increase as institutions become aware of the number of candidates, to whom offers were made, who actually turn up for registration,” he said.
“Some candidates may have accepted offers at multiple institutions, but can obviously only register at one”.
UKZN’s education expert, Professor Labby Ramrathan, on Monday told The Mercury he believed #FeesMustFall had “conscientised” the public and given potential students hope that if they could access university, their studies would be free. He said this was, in part, why there was such a large number of applications.
But in South Africa, the accepted norms also dictated that once you finished school, you went to university. “And I think that’s incorrect,” Ramrathan said, “Not everyone should – or can – go to university”.
Universities were intellectual stations, he said, but now, in South Africa, you had to obtain a qualification just to get a job. “And it is a capacity issue,” he said. “We need to make alternate access to the job market easier. Business and industry shouldn’t be looking for qualifications when they don’t need them, they should be looking for skills and offering training programmes.”