Overview of SRC Report for the Academic Year 2022/23 at UFH
The SRC report for the academic year 2022/23 at UFH covers various aspects including academic affairs, student services, and residence matters. The report highlights issues such as academic exclusion appeals, faculty-specific challenges, student support services, and financial aid opportunities. It also details the office activities, strategic planning, and preparations for the upcoming year.
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UFH SRC 2022/23 REPORT BY: UFH SRC
TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. OVERVIEW OF SRC REPORT 2.ACADEMICAFFAIRS 2.1 FACULTY OF LAW ACADEMIC EXCLUSION APPEALS RETURNING STUDENTS SPECIAL EXAM MARKS POST GRADUATEAPPLICATIONS PARTTIME STUDENTS PHASED OUT CODES QUOTA 2.2 FACULTY OF EDUCATION ACADEMIC EXCLUSION APPEALS FUNZA GRADUANDS QUOTA
TABLE OF CONTENTS CONT..... 2.3 FACULTY OF HEALTH SCIENCE QUOTA ACADEMIC EXCLUSION APPEALS PRACTICAL HOURS SPEECH THERAPY STUDENTS WRONG COURSE CODES 2.4 FACULTYB OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND HUMMANITIES QUOTA ACADEMIC EXCLUSION APPEALS 2.5 FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT AND COMMERCE ACADEMIC EXCLUSION APPEALS WRONGLY ADMITTED PGDA STUDENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS CONT 2.6 FACULTY OF SCIENCEANDAGRICLUTURE TEACHINGAND LEARNING ACADEMIC EXCLUSIONAPPEALS PQ STATUSES 2.7ADMISSION IN THE UNIVERSITY 2.8 LECTURER VENUES 2.9ADDITIONAND CANCELATION OF MODULES
TABLE OF CONTENTS CONT. 3. STUDENT SERVICES 3.1 Meeting sat between NSFAS and other Institutions. 3.2 Provisionally funded and registration templates. 3.3Appeals 3.4 NSFAS STATUS CHECK 3.5 DEBT CLEARANCE 3.6 PRIVATEACCOMODATION 3.7 NURSING STUDENTSAFFECTED BYWRONG COURSE CODE 3.8 EMERGING COURSE CODES THATARE NOT REGISTERED 3.9 CREDITING OF STUDENTACCOUNT
TABLE OF CONTENTS CONT 3.10 OTHER BURSARIES 3.10.1 ECDOE 3.10.2 COID 3.10.3 FUNDZA LUSHAKA 3.10.4 SETA 3.11 SHUTTLE SERVICE 3.12 SRC FOOD PARCELS East London. 3.13 E- Learning DATA 4. RESIDENCE 4.1 UnionArcade, Caxton Cascade and Beacon Fields (SKG) 4.2 Wi-Fi in Residences
OVERVIEW OF SRC REPORT. We occupied the office on the 1stof November 2022, we went to our strategic planning in December 2022 and we were inducted. We did a concession document to be proposed to management. We also did a plan of action for 2023 We developed a concept document on how we are going to handle registration process
FACULTY OF LAW ACADEMIC EXCLUSION APPEALS: (Faculty of law) did not send an invitation to the academic affairs officer for the appeals committee, but the meeting sat, and it had about 95 students and till to date there was no communication of how many were uplifted and those who were rejected. Many problems arose from the outcomes of the committee, some students were mistakenly omitted from the meeting, some were not satisfied about the outcomes as there was no student representative. RETURNING STUDENTS: There were students who had various situations, for the academic year 2023 their applied to come back but the faculty refuse to approve their application without any valid reasons. There a few that were enrolled back but the number that applied to be back.
FACULTY OF LAW CONT. SPECIAL EXAM MARKS: There was a miscommunication to students that they can apply for special exam not knowing or being informed about the rules of who qualifies to write for the exam, the problem comes in were the marks cannot be captured at exam department because of the rules. It was picked up that some of the students that took the special exam did not have DP s so according to the rules these students were not supposed to write the special exam hence their marks were not captured on the system. POST GRADUATE APPLICATIONS: There were a lot of applications that were not considered by the faculty, them claiming that some applications were not picked up (Online applications), with the manual it was a problem that was pushed the admin department. Abulk update of these applications was done but there are still some that have not been done.
FACULTY OF LAW CONT. PART TIME STUDENTS: These students do not have a timetable that caters for them as normal they are being told that the faculty only caters for full time students only, reason why it is because the lecturers are not being paid for the extra hours they work. PHASED OUT CODES: 21520, 21521, 21526 these codes are phased out by the faculty but there is no plan of how it will be implemented as a result there are student in the above mentioned codes who still have outstanding modules , which I have pleaded with the faculty to let those with final year modules not more than three to register as a way of phasing out the codes, but that did not materials. The faculty is telling students to go register with UNISAwhich is already closed and not considering the financial implications.
FACULTY OF LAW CONT. QUOTA : The faculty reached its target quota before the end of registration which resulted in some students who were admitted by the faculty being unable to register as there was a different criterion that was used to enroll students. The affected student also includes students who paid the MIP to be able to register not knowing that the quota is already full. I have written to the DVC Teaching and learning copy caring the Dean of Law, Registrar, and Deputy Registrar in pleading for the exception of the 2% rule so we could cater for those who paid and were admitted by the faculty, but the proposal did not materials.
FACULTY OF EDUCATION ACADEMIC EXCLUSION APPEALS: The faculty committee sat with a number of 30 students at two separate meetings of which the other one was for late submissions. The committee uplifted 22 students, rejected 5 students, one mistakenly academically excluded and two had problems of not being active on the system need to fill in return form before being included in the exclusion meeting. FUNZA GRADUANDS: Students that were funded by Funza Lushaka bursary in previous years from the faculty of education cried out for assistants. The problem is that they have not received their placement forms from the faculty of education or from the bursary office which helps when applying for job posts, but they cannot do that without providing the placement form. They were given the confirmation letters but some of the districts they applied to want the placement forms. The delay is not known as the SRC has made a follow-up with no response yet, as these forms were supposed to be received in January, but no communique has been sent to students regarding these placement forms.
FACULTY OF EDUCATION CONT QUOTA: The faculty reached its target quota resulted in some students who were admitted by the faculty being unable to register as there was a different criterion that was used to enroll students. The affected student also includes students who paid the MIP to be able to register not knowing that the quota is already full. I have written to the DVC Teaching and learning copy caring the Dean of Law, Registrar, and Deputy Registrar in pleading for the exception of the 2% rule so we could cater for those who paid and were admitted by the faculty, but the proposal did not materials.
FACULTY OF HEALTH SCIENCE QUOTA: The faculty reached the quota after opening late applications for the second time which disadvantaged the students who had statues of Academic program full . The discretion that was used in enrolling had many students that were admitted losing opportunities because of the problem of Funded list from NSFAS. ACADEMIC EXCLUSION APPEALS: The faculty committee sat with several students at one meeting. The committee uplifted none of the students, rejected 3 students. PRACTICAL HOURS: There were a number of complaints coming from Nursing students pertaining practical hours that the faculty reviewed and suddenly added more hours than owed by respective students, the faculty claimed that there were a number of students that were caught with forged hours and some students owed hours inconsideration of the Covid hours which student claimed that the number of hours owed is not the required in reference to the Covid 19 regulations that were in place. The matter was resolved as it resulted in less numbers of graduands for the May graduation for Health Science in the Nursing Department.
FACULTY OF HEALTH SCIENCE CONT SPEECH DEPARTMENT STUDENTS: Bsc speech language pathology students have been experiencing a lot of problems within their department and all their problems are a result of our departments maladministration to mention a few last year s they wrote a board exam for the governing board HPCSA the board concluded that the exams that were set by the department were not of an exit level student. They questioned the quality and the standards of the exams and because of that the department has decided to give a six-month program to make up for that mess they created. The six months program was supposedly to have started in January the 3rd but nothing has progress with regards to that as the are several channels that need to be consulted for approval of the program for progression. The faculty has agreed to provide residences and food allowance as these students have registered under the NDP. WRONG COURSE CODES: Nursing students who registered under the wrong course code last year in the faculty of Health Science. That made these students to be unfunded last year and were funded by the institution according to the report that is coming from Financial Aid Office. The faculty is claiming that it has managed to transfer these students from the wrong course code 84000 and 84035 to the correct course code that is 84040 this year but some are still in the wrong course codes. The SRC have liaised with the office of the Registrar.
FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES QUOTA: The faculty reached the quota after opening late applications for the second time which disadvantaged the students who had statues of Academic program full . The discretion that was used in enrolling had many students that were admitted losing opportunities because of the problem of Funded list from NSFAS. There was a list of students who were affected by the late application problem which a list of 29 students was compiled and went for verification and 15 students were sent back to be enrolled. ACADEMIC EXCLUSION APPEALS: The faculty committee sat with 18 students on three separate meeting which the other two was for late submissions. The committee uplifted 11 students, rejected 3 students, two mistakenly academically excluded and two had problems of not being active on the system need to fill in return form before being included in the exclusion meeting.
FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT AND COMMERCE ACADEMIC EXCLUSION APPEALS: The faculty committee sat with 10 students for postgraduates at three separate meetings of which the other two was for late submissions. The committee uplifted 11 students, rejected 3 students, two mistakenly academically excluded and two had problems of not being active on the system need to fill in return form before being included in the exclusion meeting. WRONGLY ADMITTED PGDA STUDENTS: There were two students who came forward to the SRC to alert us about the maladministration that has happened in the faculty of admitting students that do not qualify to the PGDA program. These students were to deregister and look for other options as the faculty did not want them to continue with the program as they did not qualify. The two students ended up deregistering one being enrolled in another institution and the other given an option to be enrolled for ADA, which he qualifies for.
FACULTY OF SCIENCE AND AGRICLUTURE TEACHING AND LEARNING: There was an issue of Supervisors in the faculty which some departments lacked supervisors for their studies which then was recommended to the FBM to be further discussed so that it can be approved. Number of supervisors were approved including external supervisors. There was also a query of marks allocation which was discovered by a group of students who were affected, and the lecturer became ignorant to the case until it needed lot of interventions to be sorted which then had to drag the faculty name to the dust, the lecturer was punished and given a warning then later the issue was resolved. ACADEMIC EXCLUSION APPEALS: The faculty committee had a number for postgraduates and undergrade excluded which meetings sat at separate meetings of which the others were for late submissions. The committee uplifted the applications for students, and some were rejected, noting others that were mistakenly academically excluded and some had problems of inactive on the system need to fill in return form before being included in the exclusion meeting. PQ STATUSES: There were students who were to graduate on the May graduation ceremony who have completed their studies in the 2022 Academic year. Amongst those PQ statuses there were PQ statuses that were rejected for not meeting the requirements to graduate in 2023, which those PQ statuses were reversed accordingly. Honors in Geology were affected by the delay of marks from the External examiners which led to complication of PQ statuses, then later after the reversal of some PQ statuses an additional of 18 PQ statuses were added which included 1 Bachelor, 2 Honors, 9 master s and 6 Doctoral.
ADMISSION IN THE UNIVERSITY The total number of students who are registered at the University is 16746, the total number of students who are registered at East London Campus is 6240 andAlice campus has a total of 10506. The University has opened online applications for new intake, Applications opened in July and will close at the end of November 2023.
LECTURE VENUES The EL campus SRC initiated a walk about with the officials of Properties and Services, to identify the needs of our students in the lecturer venues as we have stressed it out to the University management that the institution is not fully ready to be back on contact classes. The walk about was on the 7thof April 2023, in which all venues had a common problem of not having emergency lights as we are faced with loadshedding, air ventilation and water dispensers as these venues capacitate large numbers, sound system, working projectors, podiums, and replacement of damaged chairs and tables.
ADDITION AND CANCELATION OF MODULES On first semester the process was due to end on the 27thof February 2023, but the process was extended due to the extension of registration to the 4thof March 2023. All faculty were done in time with the process apart from the law faculty as there were still forms in the faculty not captured by the admin department, and there are still outstanding issues of modules that will in the cycle to open. For the second semester the process of addition and cancellation is due to start on the 31stof July 2023 and will end on the 17thofAugust 2023.
NSFAS RELATED MATTERS NSFAS beneficiaries on the Meeting that sat on the 25th of April 2023 between NSFAS and the SRCs (UFH, WSU, RHODES & NMU) The meeting agenda was for a Presentation on Direct payments with that as UFH SRC together with the other SRCs we rejected the direct payment approach as it is not logical and reasonable with the current state of NSFAS and the mess they have already created. The following issues were then presented to NSFAS. 1. Provisionally Funded students 2. Appeals 3. Statuses still stuck at between stage 1-5 on the Nsfas portal 4. Wrongfully Rejected students 5. Students who now qualify after the adjustment from the 55% to 50% pass rule 6. The outstanding debt clearances (closeout and remittance lists) 7. Private accommodation
NSFAS RELATED MATTERS CONT PROVISIONALLY FUNDED AND REGISTRATION TEMPLATES: Provisionally funded students, Nsfas has adviced to attempt uploading the registration templates once again claiming that the problem has been fixed. Together with the FAO we will attempt to upload the registration templates for the students affected, this also includes those that appealed and are provisionally funded. Nsfas will send one of its representatives to the institution as we requested because we foresee the same issue of the Nsfas portal rejecting student registration templates. The issue of registration templates is still an ongoing problem and NSFAS is claiming that the institution is done sending registration templates whereas the number of students whose registration templates are still outstanding. APPEALS: The appeal process is still ongoing as those that have not had their statuses updated must just keep checking their portals. This then also includes those who were wrongfully Rejected, N+1 and those that are now catered for by the adjusted 50% pass rule if they appealed. The battle of appeals has been successful to others and has been problematic to other students, as the the SRC we are still trying to push for these appeals to be successful.
NSFAS RELATED MATTERS CONT NSFAS STATUSES STUCK AT BETWEEN STAGE (1-5) : Nsfas claimed that the students that fall under this category have not uploaded the required correct documents and that they are going to close these applications to which we argued that our students have submitted all the required correct documents. The Resolution was then reached to say all the students that have not uploaded the documents will be communicated to Nsfas and given 5 days to upload them and those that have already done so a list must be sent to them for investigation on why they have not moved. DEBT CLEARANCE : We raised the issue of students not having their funding credited to them and whilst Nsfas blamed the Finance and finance blames Nsfas because of the sensitivity of the issue we then resolved that it needs all the parties involved and as a separate meeting will be held next week between the SRC, NSFAS and Finance. PRIVATE ACCOMODATION : The process of loading living allowance to students who live in private accommodation has been a challenge to the SRC. The slow pace of loading allowances and the rejections that students have been facing from NSFAS made this process to prolong, but we have managed as the SRC to push to make sure that over 10 000 students receive their private accommodation allowance before the implementation of direct payment. Students who live in private accommodation will not be affected by direct payment; the institution has been giving the autonomy to release funds of living allowances.
NSFAS RELATED MATTERS CONT NURSING STUDENTS AFFECTECED BY WRONG COURSE CODE: The issue of the course code has been resolved and the templates were uploaded with 26 students coming back as unfunded. FAO has also added the students on to the queries. This issue of nursing students has been giving the SRC headache because NSFAS has been ignoring the FinancialAid Office for a long time to resolve this issue. EMERGING COURSE CODES THAT ARE NOT REGISTERED: On the 4thof May Nsfas email the FAO office with regards to some of our courses that are not registered under them and together with the academic officer an investigation is still underway to get verification that these codes are SAQA accredited, and the corrected information be communicated to Nsfas. CREDITING OF STUDENT ACCOUNTS: There is missing proof of payments thus the students under the remittance list cannot yet be credited the money they have received from NSFAS. Communications are underway to resolve the issue as soon as possible.
NSFAS RELATED MATTERS CONT OTHER BURSARIES ECDOE : Students who are funded by ECDOE have received their meal allowance. Their living allowance has also started reflecting on ITS and we are hoping that by next week their money will be paid to their accounts. COID: Students who are funded by this bursary have received their allowances; the only problem currently is living allowances but the requisition for living allowances has been made. FUNZA LUSHAKA : Students who are funded by this bursary have received their allowances including living allowances. The only problem that we still have is that school experience money has not been paid yet but a requisition has been made.
SHUTTLE SERVICE The shuttle service at East London Campus started operating from the first semester. We as the SRC have written so many proposals to the management for the addition of buses because it is only two busses that operating, and we have a huge number of more than 2640 students that are using shuttle. The shuttle service is being used by students who reside in Southernwood only in the morning because of the huge number of students in that area. During the late hours students who reside in Quigney also use the shuttle.
SHUTTLE SERVICES CONT The proposal of the SRC on new buses has achieved. There are four new 22-seater sprinter buses, these buses have started working. It is also good news that there are also four 65-seater buses that have arrived, it is unfortunate that they have not start operating but we are hoping as the SRC that by the August these busses will be operating.
SRC FOOD PARCELS EAST LONDON The East London Campus SRC made a program of food parcels where there was a distribution of food to students who are unfunded and students who were defunded. The reason for doing this program was because of the high number of students who are unfunded, students who were defunded and students who were wrongfully rejected by NSFAS.
LEARNGING DATA/LAPTOPS Data was last loaded for students in May because the contract with the various services providers was only for 3 months, the reason behind this was because the Institution was trying to migrate from online to contact learning. Due to inconsistency of Wi-Fi Connectivity, NSFAS Direct Payment that affects almost 90% of our students, Renovations that are not finished in some residences in Alice Campus, contracts with service providers for data had to be renewed because all these challenges mentioned made us to go back to online learning. So, the process of loading data to students is still going well, there aren t any major challenges
RESIDENCES Union Arcade and Caxton Cascade (SKG): At the beginning of the first semester East London Campus faced the challenge of being returned Union Arcade and Caxton Cascade. The East London Campus SRC fought day in and out rejecting the return of those two residences, those two residences were rejected because of not meeting the minimum norm and standards, such that this matter escalated to ISRC, and they were meetings sat with the University lawyers to fight those residences. A petition was signed by students rejecting those residences and thus far there is no student that is allocated in those residences. EL Wi-Fi : The SRC has been receiving quite a few complaints from students about the Wi-Fi connection that is poor. This matter has been taken forward to the person responsible for Wi-Fi and the commitment was that during recess all residences affected will be checked and Wi-Fi will be fixed. Alice Wi-Fi: As we are aware that last semester, we had a huge problem of Wi-Fi in our residence the ICT department promised us that they ll fix this issue during this period of recess of which they did manage to try and resolve this problem in some residences based on their report.
RESIDENCES CONT RENOVATIONS IN RESIDENCES: During the first semester, students who reside at Elwandle res have been facing a challenge of cold water in their residence, the SRC has been reported that there were new installations of geyser, and we are hoping that our students are using hot water. Caxton House Residence: has been having a challenge of using one lift and as the SRC we reported the matter, and a second lift is renovated and made new. The issue of Wi-Fi in this residence has not been properly fixed because rooms that are in far corners cannot connect. Students who reside in this residence have received study lamps that can charge. Ocean View: Students who reside in this residence have been complaining to the SRC about how unsafe their residence is and as the SRC we have managed to visit the residence, we sat a meeting with House Committee and with maintenance from Pulse and living. Issues of leakages when it s raining were raised. As the SRC we fully believe that during this period of recess all the issues were resolved.
RESIDENCES CONT Cedar Heights: The SRC has been getting so many complaints from students who are living in this residence. The issues being raised in this residence are showers that are not working properly, blocked toilets that release sewerage out. Alice Renovations : As per communication that was issued out by the residence department which alluded that during recess students my vacate their due to the fact that they need to be maintained and renovated and also to attend other things that need to be fixed during recess, it was a great disappointment to find out that none of these things that they mentioned were done during recess but now they re starting the process of fixing residences which this compromises students because now they do not have a place to stay. We sat a meeting with the maintenance department, and we commanded that they must finish these residences that they are currently renovating before month end, we also advised them to fix dining halls for students to be decanted to them while they re busy with renovations. Alice Requisitions: The Maintenance department promised us that during recess they will attend all the issues that, but they did not attend any of them on the basis that they are still waiting for orders from service providers to be delivered we then given them until month end. Cold Water :As we are aware that we had a problem of cold water in our residences, it is great to announce that there s a delivery of geysers that arrived of which the process of installing them is ongoing.
CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY OF 2023 On the 7thof January we had the bad news of the assassination of the body guard of the VC where there lot of concerned around the issue of safety was raised but on the 9thof march the was meeting between SRC and Management where this issue was raised and we were given assurance by management that the safety of students is guaranteed and so far we have not had any issues security have been beefed up. During Registration, We had concession document that assisted lot of students to get into the system but according to the report from CFO we were made aware of the financial implications that came with the document.
CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY OF 2023 CONT The SRC received donation of R1.3 Million from Motsepe foundation and we took 1 million and donated towards student registration. We had 167 students who applied for our donation and the total amount of their debt amounted to 7 million unfortunately we were only able to assist 67 students. By the 27thof February allowance were already disbursed, students received the book and meal allowances which gave a good kick start for the 2023Academic year.
CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY OF 2023 CONT On the 22ndof April 2023 we received an invitation to a meeting with WSU,NMU and Rhodes the meeting was initiated by NSFAS tothe direct payment system to us and we rejected it because we didn t trust the process and it was not clear how the process will unfold , on the 22ndof June we had another meeting where we were introduced to Norraco as our service provider we told NSFAS that we do not want this system, yet we want to observe it on other institutions we were skeptical because 90% of our students are NSFAS beneficiaries meaning if they don t receive allowances the will be a food insecurity and that will cause lot of chaos in our institution.
CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY OF 2023 CONT When NSFAS started with Direct Payment in July, what we had anticipated happened. Students did not receive their allowance and because 90% of our students are NSFAS Beneficiaries we had to come up with a plan to assist them. The following measure were used in order to assist these students: We had to move classes from physical to online to curb this issue. We had to negotiate for food parcels to be distributed to students who were affected. We did a financial aid drive where we called NSFAS and Norraco to come and assist they were there for 5 days but still the issues of students who haven t received their allowances. We have issue of defunded students and the issue of defunding also results in students to be evicted by their landlords because they cant pay rent anymore.
CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY OF 2023 CONT Since the issue of SRC Elections that need to sit this year has been stressed, the following measure were taken by the SRC to assist in this process: On the 19thof august we had Institutional student parliament where ISP members proposed a date of the 4thof October 2023. The issue of Constitution review is a work in progress where the is still more consultations to be done as students feel like the current draft that is to be adopted does not reflect what they have discussed and proposed in the summit.
CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY OF 2023 CONT With all the bad and negative publicity students are concerned whether how will this impact our qualifications in terms of securing jobs and possible investors. We are appreciate the work done to curb corruption but we want to also see more of the questionable stunts to be revealed so that we can regain our confidence back as the Institution.
CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY OF 2023 CONT The SRC and Management have worked closely and very well to maintain stability in the institution for 2023 and we have achieved most of our goals.
