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Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande said in Johannesburg R35 million would be spent on the first phase of the Central Application System (CAS).  

“[This] is to address the perennial problem of prospective students who decide in January to start looking for places, and those who are not accepted at their initial institutions of choice and [then] decide to try get admitted by other institutions in January.” 

The first phase of the system would require that all prospective students not placed at tertiary institutions be registered on one system. It would be used for this year’s matriculants.

“When institutions open in their first week and they find that they still have openings, they will be able to go to the system [known as the clearing house] to take students from there and alert them that they have been accepted without having them do walk-ins at the institution,” Nzimande explained.

He said the department was seeking to avoid a repeat of a stampede at the University of Johannesburg on January 10 in which a prospective student’s mother was killed.

The new system, which was reportedly backed by the vice-chancellors of all 23 tertiary institutions, would contain the names of institutions that still had places available.

KwaZulu-Natal was already operating with a similar system for four of its institutions.   From 2013, for admissions to the following year, prospective students would only be required to pay a single standardised application fee for all their applications.

Nzimande said the same closing date for applications to all tertiary institutions would apply.

“We should move to a place where one knows that if you miss the application deadline, that’s it,” Nzimande said.

Once fully in operation, the system would also see prospective students applying for and being awarded financial aid and student housing through the CAS.

Nzimande said it was important that institutions took on students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

“The burden must be shared,” he said.

Comments

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Sat May 25 23:05:39 SAST 2013 ::

Oct 11, 2012

MommaC

Would help if the poor sods had books so they could actually have a chance of passing their Matric to start with.
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Oct 11, 2012

RobinH

No systems will be worth a thing unless you people can get books to schoolchildren.
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Oct 11, 2012

malemaforpresident

Sitting in your big office earning big and brainless and bringing the system late after fatalities and or death remain questionable why wait so long Mr Blade?
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Oct 11, 2012

Papage

My brother sold that idia to them five years ago, if it was implemented then, many problem could have been avoided, by the way he is from Diepkloof Zone 4, a very educated young man. Good work Boy, boy.
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Oct 11, 2012

Hail

They keep on chop and changing but all changes are never susccesful. For the whole year you have been working on that? talk about performance.
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Oct 11, 2012

Shredder

What is a sod?
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Oct 11, 2012

Mrazane

When I was in high school we knew there were closing dates to apply to tertiary institutions and we stuck to these, why spend 35million because people can't be responsible and apply on time? Ja ja ja there was a stampede mara really we are breeding a nation of lazy buffoons, there will always be something that goes wrong, because the real problem is really with the mindset of the nation and until that is fixed we are chasing our tails.

@ shredder

an offensive term for somebody regarded as thoughtless, annoying, or objectionable
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Oct 12, 2012

RobinH

Shredder: Strictly speaking a "sod" is one of those squares of lawn one cuts and replants. But one can refer to somone slow on the uptake as a silly "sod".
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