University battles to fill empty classrooms
The university decided to extend the registration period in order to fill classrooms and encouraged students who met admission requirements to complete an application this week.
MBOMBELA – The enrolment of students at the University of Mpumalanga (UMP) is far fewer than expected because of poor matric results.
According to Prof John Shongwe, campus director of the university, many of the applicants did not meet the minimal requirements of the various courses the university offers.
After the university’s formal registration processes were completed on Friday, only 202 students had been admitted.
According to Shongwe they received more than 3 000 applications, but due to poor results in especially mathematics, the university was struggling to occupy its classrooms.
He said the main reason for this problem was due to the fact that many students avoided maths at school level and those who did take maths, opted for maths literacy.
“Maths literacy is not always good enough,” Shongwe said, adding that in many cases it only resulted in disappointment when students applied at universities. According to Shongwe, this problem should be addressed on school level and he said children should be encouraged to aim higher.
“Children should be encouraged to take subjects at school level that will enable them to increase their opportunities in the future and not only to help schools to obtain a 100 per cent pass mark,” he said.
According to Shongwe another problem they were faced with was the funding of students. “In this difficult economic time, it is hard for students to financially keep head above water,” he said.
Three students of UMP could, however, breathe a sigh of relief when the premier Mr David Mabuza made close to R1 million available, in an effort to lessen the financial strain that rested on their shoulders. All three were enrolled for a diploma in information communication technology in applications development at the university. Shongwe expressed his gratitude on behalf of the students and said it was wonderful to have institutions like Mabuza’s DD Trust on board in these economic difficult times.
“It is wonderful to know that there are people who want to support the university.”
The university decided to extend the registration period in order to fill classrooms and encouraged students who met admission requirements to complete an application this week. Requirements are available on the university’s website at www.ump.ac.za.
The UMP still have 14 available spaces in bachelor of agriculture in agricultural extension and rural resource development (BAgric), 12 for a diploma in hospitality management and 60 for a diploma in agriculture in plant production. The course for a bachelor of education in foundation- phase teaching is filled with 99 enrol-ments.
