‘Important victories’ for Wits tuition fees in 2015
Posters claiming the fees negotiations are ‘Important Victories!’ are stuck up all over campus. Photo: Roxanne Joseph
Wits University has backed and approved a suggestion made by the Student Representative Council (SRC), not to increase the upfront fee payment next year.
The SRC today confirmed the upfront fee will remain R9 350, as it was at the beginning of 2014 despite an initial proposal by the university to increase the amount to R10 270.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor of finance, Prof Tawana Kupe told Wits Vuvuzela the agreement has been approved by the University Financial Committee (FINCO) and is recommended for approval by the Wits Council, in December this year.
According to a statement released by the SRC this morning, the student body commissioned a team of senior accounting and actuarial science students to do “extensive cash flow and financial modelling to ascertain whether or not the upfront fee payment is exorbitant for the purpose that it serves”.
“The reduced upfront fee payment as conceptualised by the SRC of 2012 will also be continued and will also remain at the same 2014 price,” read the statement, signed by President Shafee Verachia and Secretary General Michlene Mongae.
Another development in fees negotiations has yielded positive results for international students, whose fees have been reduced for 2015 by R38 996 for Commerce, Law and Management to R15 140 for Humanities.
Additionally PhD students will not see an increase in their fees in 2015.
