THOHOYANDOU - Angry students of the University of Venda for Science and Technology, led by SASCO, were on the streets protesting against the 32% fee increment on Wednesday.

According to the memorandum that was handed to the Regional Office of the Department of Education, problems that students are faced with range from NSFAS allocations to students, the payment schedule imposed by the management on poor students, the registration fee for the second semester and the ‘unreasonable’ fee increment.

Students further demanded that the allocation that students get from this financial aid scheme (NSFAS) is not assisting students, but is rather frustrating poor students. “Unlike in other institutions, where this scheme caters for accommodations, tuition and meals, at the University of Venda, students only get 50% of their tuition fees and the remaining fees become a burden to students,” they said.

They added that the current system appears to favour students who are already in the university system.

Students said that the Venda University has introduced an unreasonable payment schedule that requires students to continuously dig down to their parents’ empty pockets. “The management further introduced a double registration model that requires students to register with a lot of money in the second semester. This mode of registration requires students to pay 40% of tuition fees on registration,” they said.

According to the students, the University of Venda had more than 7 000 students at the first semester and now it has less than 2 000 registered students, with the remainder just attending classes, as they are uncertain of what will happen to them in future.

“As a result of the university’s failure to raise funds to run its affairs, they resorted to raising fees by 32% without consulting the students,” said students led by SASCO. They added that the university’s only source of revenue is the government grant and students’ contributions.

They further said that the management does not want to discuss any of the above problems; instead, they continue to frustrate efforts to resolve these matters amicably.

“The director of student affairs and the vice-chancellor have refused to meet with students on campus,” they said. “While the country is celebrating 10 years of freedom, the University of Venda seems to be erasing the word democracy from its vocabulary. Students requested the intervention of the Department of Education before the situation gets out of hand,” they add.

On behalf of the Regional Director of Education, Mr Masotsha Mathivha, Mr Mukhodobwane received the memorandum and promised students that the memo will be sent to the National Department of Education.

By the time of going to the press, Univen Vice Chancellor Gessler Nkondo was not around to respond.