Cape Town – Accommodation uncertainties persist among hundreds of UWC students who resided at the privately owned South Point residence in Belhar.
The residence was jointly used by UWC and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) students last year when, around October, CPUT reached an agreement with South Point to lease the residence exclusively.
When the news reached UWC students via a communique, demonstrations were held and students demanded to know where they would be accommodated in 2020.
“Having exclusive use residences is beneficial in terms of managing maintenance and the tremendous pressure placed on the institution at the beginning of every academic year for student housing,” said CPUT spokesperson Lauren Kansley.
UWC spokesperson Gasant Abarder said he would comment today as the relevant people were travelling and needed to be consulted.
Meanwhile, Higher Education, Science and Technology Minister Blade Nzimande said through the Student Housing Infrastructure Programme (Ship) the department aimed to develop student housing projects at universities and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges in the coming years.
This as all 26 public universities across the country are gearing up to accept about 201 042 prospective
students to further their studies this year.
“The goal of Ship is to provide 300 000 new beds at the public universities and 50 public TVET colleges over the next 10 years.
"The programme has succeeded in raising funds to supplement the department’s infrastructure funding and has forged partnerships with a range of entities in both the public and private sectors,” said Nzimande.
UWC is in line to get 2 720 beds while CPUT is to receive 2 150 beds, according to Nzimande.
Nzimande also alerted students qualifying for the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) not to pay upfront for registration fees at universities or
colleges.
He said 430 000 applications had been approved for NSFAS funding so far with 281 639 of them being Sassa beneficiaries.
“The fact that for the first time NSFAS is able to say you qualify, it means, therefore, when you go to register when you’ve been accepted, you’ve got proof to say, I don’t have to pay registration,” Nzimande said.
NSFAS administrator Dr Randall Carolissen said at least R31 billion was set aside to help students in the 2020 academic year.