Mangosuthu University of Technology students who owe tuition fees from the previous years will not be allowed to register this year or to graduate if the outstanding fees are not paid.
The university yesterday revealed that the total student debt to date stood at R82million, and until owing students settle their debt the university would be forced to turn them away. Last year the total student debt stood at R126 million.
Parents of owing students were called in to discuss how the debt could be paid in monthly installments in an attempt to save the financially unstable university.
Finance department director Zama Ngidi yesterday said the university was slowly recovering from the huge student debt. But he could not say whether it had regained its financial stability.
"We can maybe talk about financial stability or recovery at the end of this year," Ngidi said. "At the moment I can only say we are getting there. The parents have responded very well to our call to pay up.
"There is still a lot of money to recover. Our target was to have all the money recovered by the end of last year."
Ngidi said the university was busy working on ways to trace all owing students dating back to when the university was opened to recover the huge debt left behind.
Out of the R82million total student debt R9,3million is last year's debt alone, while the remaining debt is for the previous years from the time when the university was opened.
But deputy student representative council president Bonga Zungu said they were hopeful that the National Student Fund Aid Scheme (NSFAS) will have settled the fees owed before registration for returning students began next week.
"NSFAS beneficiaries constitute the largest number of owing students, while students paying for themselves constitute only 5percent of the student population."
Varsity plan to recover R82m debt
Mangosuthu University of Technology students who owe tuition fees from the previous years will not be allowed to register this year or to graduate if the outstanding fees are not paid.
The university yesterday revealed that the total student debt to date stood at R82million, and until owing students settle their debt the university would be forced to turn them away. Last year the total student debt stood at R126 million.
Parents of owing students were called in to discuss how the debt could be paid in monthly installments in an attempt to save the financially unstable university.
Finance department director Zama Ngidi yesterday said the university was slowly recovering from the huge student debt. But he could not say whether it had regained its financial stability.
"We can maybe talk about financial stability or recovery at the end of this year," Ngidi said. "At the moment I can only say we are getting there. The parents have responded very well to our call to pay up.
"There is still a lot of money to recover. Our target was to have all the money recovered by the end of last year."
Ngidi said the university was busy working on ways to trace all owing students dating back to when the university was opened to recover the huge debt left behind.
Out of the R82million total student debt R9,3million is last year's debt alone, while the remaining debt is for the previous years from the time when the university was opened.
But deputy student representative council president Bonga Zungu said they were hopeful that the National Student Fund Aid Scheme (NSFAS) will have settled the fees owed before registration for returning students began next week.
"NSFAS beneficiaries constitute the largest number of owing students, while students paying for themselves constitute only 5percent of the student population."
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