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Kamogelo Ncaca had been looking forward to starting her new life as a student at the University of Limpopo after being accepted to study for a BA in criminology and psychology.
The 20-year-old from Johannesburg had just taken a gap year and was looking forward to returning to academic life. She said:
The part of the letter with a reference number and the University of Limpopo’s logo read: “Dear Ms Ncaca, your application to Bachelor of Arts (criminology and psychology) for 2023 refers. We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to study for the degree in the school of social sciences. Registration will take place online only and will commence on January 26 and end on February 3, 2023.”
She said she had managed to pay R3 000 for registration two days before the closing date.
“Even after I’d paid the money, it didn’t show on the system that I’d registered. We decided to drive to Turfloop in Limpopo, as the university was having an orientation day. I explained my problem to the administration clerk and she cleared me for registration. She then showed me the building where my faculty was situated. However, when I got there, it was a different story. I was told that there was no space and I’d be refunded,” she said.
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Kamogelo said this was bitterly disappointing, especially as all the other institutions of higher learning had already closed for admissions.
Her mother Nonhlanhla said the dean of the faculty had told them that there had been a glitch in the system that had affected a number of students.
She added that it was depressing for her daughter to spend another year at home doing nothing.
A student leader from political party ActionSA said he had experienced the same challenges when enrolling at the University of Limpopo last year.
“I’d also paid the registration fee, only to be told there was no space on the course. However, I was very fortunate to be assisted by a former student and I was finally cleared for registration. Every year, the university’s faced with challenges like this. This year, there were a number of students who approached our organisation from different faculties, especially those of management law, media studies, science and agriculture. They were all told that there was no space, even though they’d paid for registration,” he said.
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He said he had compiled a file of all those students.
However, the president of the university’s student representative council, Makamu Viper, said the only problem at the institution was that there were students who were still waiting to be placed.
Professor Kwena Masha, the university’s registrar, said that, once the National Senior Certificate results were released, the institution matched them with individuals’ applications for the upcoming academic year.
“For 2023, the university had about 204 000 applicants who were ranked and placed in the respective programmes for which they’d applied. Where a programme offers, for example, 100 spaces, about 120 applicants receive admitted status. Those qualifying, yet below the cut-off point, are put on a waiting list and the rest are given a regret status,” he said.
Masha said that three days into the registration period, the offers were reviewed for programmes that were not fully subscribed. This was done to allow those on the waiting lists to go further up the list. This process was revisited until all programmes were fully subscribed.
Masha added that those who had already paid for registration would be refunded.
