A queue of prospective students outside Unisa's Durban campus. A queue of prospective students outside Unisa's Durban campus.
The dreams of thousands of 2011 matriculants who have toiled throughout the year to obtain good grades were dashed this week.
Passing matric with distinctions is one thing, but securing a place at a tertiary institution proved to be a major hurdle for the desperate go-getters.
So far Durban’s most popular campuses, the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the Durban University of Technology do not have space for the thousands of first year applications for the 2012 academic year.
DUT spokesman, Alan Khan, said they had received 55 860 applications for the year but would only register 6382 students. “This number far exceeds the spaces that are available,” said Khan.
Popular courses
He added the top six most popular programmes include a Bachelors of Education degree, followed by Journalism, Nursing Science, Human Resource Management, Emergency Medical Care and Dental Technology.
“In total, there will be more than 24 000 students studying at our five campuses in Durban and Pietermaritzburg.”
Khan said academic merit was the primary selection criterion for selecting students.
“However, selected students have to ensure that they present themselves for registration with the required documents on the stipulated date. Failure to do this may result in their place being offered to another applicant.”
Matriculants who applied to the UKZN faced a similar hurdle. Nomonde Mbadi, Executive Director: Corporate Relations Division for UKZN, said they had received 61 500 first year applications and could only accommodate approximately 9 000 students for the first year.
Mbadi said the popular course choices were Education, Health Sciences (Medicine, Pharmacy, Physiotherapy, etc) and Social Work.
More than 5 516 matriculants applied to the medical school, but only 210 will be accepted.
“Targets are in place to train an increased number of African doctors to address the health needs in the rural areas. In this regard the Medical School aims to enroll 69% Black Africans, 19% Indians, 9% coloureds and 3% white students.
“UKZN has developed innovative Alternative Access and Academic Support programmes to cater for both prospective and registered students whose academic potential was not realised due to disadvantaged educational backgrounds.”
In total 43 000 under graduate and post graduate students will be attending UKZN in 2012.
About 600 students received acceptance letters earlier this month for the Bachelor of Communication Pathology (Audiology).
Professor Sabiha Essack said the university regrets the e-mail that was inadvertently sent on Saturday, January 7, this year to all students who applied for the Bachelor of Communication Pathology (Audiology) stating that their applications were successful.
Incorrect parameter
“This was due to an incorrect parameter that had been mistakenly selected on the IT system. An SMS and letter informing students of the error was immediately sent to the students concerned. Students will be contacted on the status of their application.”
There are only 22 places available.
Meanwhile, the mother of a matriculant died and 16 people were injured in a stampede by desperate matriculants trying to get on to the University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park campus on Tuesday to apply for registration .