Pretoria | Thursday
EDUCATION Minister Kader Asmal was committing a travesty of justice by the way he was going about merging the University of South Africa, Technikon SA and the distance education centre of Vista University, Unisa principal Dr Barney Pityana said on Thursday.
In a notice in a government gazette on Friday, Asmal announced the three institutions would merge from February 1, to become the Open Learning University of South Africa.
Unisa has applied to the Pretoria High Court to set aside this decision, or alternatively, its implementation. The matter is scheduled to be heard on January 22.
At a news conference in Pretoria on Thursday, Pityana said Unisa was as positive about the merger of the three institutions as the minister was, but accused him of a lack of consultation about the process.
”The way this is being done, is a case study of an abortive merger.”
Meanwhile, new students are being admitted to the University of Transkei (Unitra) in all faculties despite the Ministry of Education’s moratorium on the admission of first year students.
Academic registrar Peggy Luswazi said on Wednesday that the Unitra senate had taken a decision recently to continue registering new students.
Almost 50 students a day were turning up to register, she said.
The registrations are contrary to Asmal’s recent moratorium on all first year registrations at Unitra, except in the health sciences faculty. Asmal cited financial turmoil at the institution when announcing the moratorium.
The new administrator Dr Molapo Qhobela could not be reached for comment.
Union and student organisations at the university have called for an urgent meeting with Asmal to discuss the freeze on new admissions.
The call followed a meeting in Umtata of representatives of the SA Democratic Teachers Union, the Congress of SA Students, National Education Health and Allied Workers Union and the SA Students Congress.
Asmals’ moratorium on the admission of new students effectively signed the university’s death warrant, the group said in a statement.
They also called for discussion on an inclusive consultative approach to the restructuring of higher education and for an education alliance summit to be held on the tertiary education crisis resulting from underfunding and poor management. – Sapa