20/01/2022
For Immediate Release
19 January 2022
ULSA VICTORY STATEMENT: OUTCOMES OF THE ULSA-LED SHUTDOWN.
The Unisa Law Students Association embarked on rigorous campus shutdown at the national region of the University (Tshwane) as demonstration of utter grievance to the university. The association derives its mandate from law students and the general Unisa student populace at large. The association embarked on a robust ULSA-Led campus shutdown from 10th to the 17th January 2022. Principal to the campus shutdown were demands ranging from Intellimali, withheld examination results, Supplementary Exams for the Jan/Feb exam period and distribution of data to students, Qualification audit, Graduations, Telecentres, Acknowledgement of debt forms, NSFAS, and Higher Certificate offers.
INTELLIMALI AND NSFAS:
ULSA registers to the entire Unisa student populace that a victory to the students has been recorded: we have defeated an evil capitalist-driven system of Intellimali of which students are in the affirmative that since it surfaced in the university, the engaged relationship has been nothing but parasitic and abusive one. In a multi-political and academic gathering which was chaired by the President of Law Students at University of South Africa, the President welcomed the response from the Vice Chancellor and Principal of Unisa, Prof Puleng LenkaBula; in which the Vice Chancellor categorically stated and guaranteed students that Intellimali will be scrapped and no longer continue its services to the university. Therefore, INTELLIMALI IS NO MORE AT UNISA!
Withal, ULSA urges Unisa Enterprise mandated by Council to accelerate and conclude the process of exploring better Innovative means of distributing bursary funds to beneficiaries. This remarks our agreement with the university that, Laptops and Learning Material Allowance will be distributed to students early as soon the registration period for semester 1 concludes. And, for students who will struggle to settle their outstanding fees; we have made available the Acknowledgement Of Debt Form, which is available to self-funded students.
EXAMINATION RESULTS:
During the 2021 Sep-November examination period, the university conducted and saw a participation in over three million (3,000,000) module examinations, which were written in the period. It is trite and noteworthy of challenges which affected students, like technical glitches—during a time where the country was at a peak of experiencing loadshedding where upon receiving their results; factored to that was the wrongful flagging for academic dishonesty, and subsequently Disciplinary steps pending, withheld results for not using the invigilator App and the general outstanding results.
With these challenges, ULSA advanced that over 300 000 students who were presented with the challenges of withheld results due failure to use the Invigilator App and those who were flagged for disciplinary to be granted supplementary examinations. There were over thirty six thousand students who were flagged for academic dishonesty without any concrete proof against them that they were engaged in dishonest academic activities. Likewise, we advanced like proper legal scholars that the university should give such students supplementary exams since the university does not have proof against them.
Conversely, in our interventions we delegated the Secretary General, with the aim to also ensure that the management reduces the costs of a supplementary because it does not make financial sense to charge exorbitant fees which were previously charged due to the manner in which exams were conducted. We argued that with online examinations, the only expenditure is on the marker and data which students need to access exams; unlike before where there would be an expenditure for a venue and an invigilator. Therefore we managed to bring the university to a concession, thus, cost for Supplementary will be cut down. And, Aegrotats will be granted for free of charge and student account will not be charged for same.
Moreover, there was a group of lazy and entitled students who were identified for academic dishonesty. Such students were subjected to disciplinary measures by the university. We vehemently condemn with the strongest possible terms, any acts of academic dishonesty—such acts ruin the reputation of our institution. Conversely, we do not desire to see any student lose their studentship, we believe that through education that is how we can succeed. Conversely, we pleaded that such students must not be subjected to any harsh sanctions like suspension or expulsion.
Noting the increase in disciplinary cases, ULSA will establish a Student Disciplinary and Advisory Committee which will comprise of Law students who will represent students at the Disciplinary committee of the university; no student must be suspended.
DATA AND TELECENTRES:
We have agreed with the management that students who will be participating in the Jan/Feb examinations must have adequate resources to enable them to participate in the exams successfully. Students will therefore receive 30 gigs of Online Learning data to enable them for such participation. We urge students to ensure that their details are updated to benefit from the data that is currently being rolled out to students. And, Telecentres will be made available for students who are far from computer access available on campus. These telecentres are tailored to cater for students to enable them to have access in their nearest area.
Qualifications Audit and Graduation:
The university has earlier in what was a communication notified that the audit process is still ongoing and students should at least receive letters of completion by Feb 2022. We advanced that the delay in the audit process is thus detrimental to our students since many of them are missing out on employment opportunities, thus it presents a disadvantage to them. Thus, we demanded that the university must capacitate more staff to ensure that the audit process is accelerated.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought about a restructure on how we do things as a people and thus affected activities like physical graduations. This came about as there were lockdown regulations on gatherings in previous levels. With the current level, we see that we can now receive quite a reasonable number of people in gathering which occurs indoors, like a graduation ceremony. A graduation ceremony a time which all the sleepless and hard-work are celebrated by students, and it is a very emotional and remarkable moment many would attest for a lifetime. We advanced couriers have proven detrimental because we have students who to date have not received their qualification certificates because they got lost through the process. Students should therefore be graduating at a ceremony.
DESPATCH:
We are extremely opposed to the idea of courier delivering study material to the account that, it has proven that it is not reliable and safe in of delivering our study material if not on time. In the previous academic years students experienced challenges in getting their study material, some did not even receive it due to the courier process. Therefore in our interventions, we have demanded that counter despatch must resume and students must receive their study material at campus easily and reliably. Therefore we can confirm that counter despatch has been reopened, and thus, we encourage students to choose counter despatch because it is more reliable and flexible.
However, we note the working conditions which the staff is subjected at despatch and call for the university to resolve the problem.
Higher Certificate Offers:
With the high demand of the qualifications in the College of education and Law; it is noteworthy that these Colleges have now been oversubscribed and the university can no longer continue to take more than the threshold given by DHET, of 370 000. Conversely, in our interventions we demanded that the university must therefore allocate Higher Certificate students in qualifications (Colleges where there’s space) which relate with what they intended to do. However in the final analysis, should the university fail to allocate these spaces by Monday the 24th of January, ULSA will embark on a full-blown campus shutdown—where all campuses of Unisa will be on a shutdown.
REGISTRATION:
With the challenges which returning students have been facing in the previous weeks, some are still outstanding since there is still a backlog due to the worker’s picket and the shutdown, which has direly impacted. Therefore we demanded that Registration and the date for minimum payment be extended to the 31st of January 2022, to allow ventilation of these issue and also to allow matriculants reasonable time to register. Moreover, Summative assessment should be extended by a week or more—such will depend; this however will be confirmed through the Management Committee.
The leadership of ULSA therefore encourages all Law students to participate in the 2022 activities which the association will cater for the enhancement of our law students in the university.
HAMBA NATHI!
Issued by,
Bono Masakona,
President
Unisa Law Students Association
Shatadi Phoshoko
Secretary General
Unisa Law Students Association
