MAJOR universities in the city said they had witnessed a rise in the number of applications from prospective students.
Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) spokesperson Willa de Ruyter said each year the hunger for post-school education was
evident in the number of applications received.
“In 2018, the university received more than 100 000 applications from prospective first-time entering students. And by the end of business on Tuesday, just over 50% of the allotted 15 000 first-years had already been enrolled for this year.”
She said that in line with the Department of Higher Education and Training-approved student enrolment plan, TUT was one of the institutions which enrolled the largest number of first-time students.
De Ruyter said that most students applied for spaces in public management, local government management, legal assistants and language practice.
Courses that tended to fill up slower were general administration, marketing, equine science, ecotourism and finance.
The student drop-out rate has always been a challenge, and the universities said they were doing everything they could to address it.
“At the start of the academic year, a lot of hard work and energy goes into welcoming and preparing students for the transition from school to varsity life. The popular TUT 101 project is one of the initiatives to help students ease into university life and to curb drop-out rates,” De Ruyter said.
She added that the university offered a wide range of support services for free to registered students, at its Student Support Services.
These ranged from counselling and psychological services to academic and study support, and support to prepare for tests and examinations.
The University of Pretoria said it had reached its capacity for all under-graduate programmes.
Spokesperson Rikus Delport said it had accommodated about 53000 contact students, 9600 of them first-years.
“All professional programmes offered in the various faculties remain popular.”
This year, the university had received 37464 applications.
Unisa said it had spaces for 113710 students, and of those, 54450 were allocated to new entries.
Spokesperson Martin Ramotshela said there had been an additional allocation of 25000 spaces. However, these were only open for students who had already applied at the institution.
He, too, said students often applied for courses in the social sciences.
“The issue of drop-outs has been a concern for some time now, and we have made certain to give students in the system the necessary support,” Ramotshela said.