After three meetings at Rhodes University today failed to break the deadlock over fees, the #FeesMustFall grouping called a meeting this evening to plan their next move.
After three meetings at Rhodes University today failed to break the deadlock over fees, the #FeesMustFall grouping called a meeting this evening to plan their next move.
Meanwhile, the University’s Communications and Advancement Division announced that engagement with various role players on addressing the fees issues would continue tomorrow, and the teaching programme would remain suspended.
Representatives of RU #FeesMustFall, the Student Representative Council, the National Health and Allied Workers Union and Rhodes University management spent hours locked in a meeting that started mid-afternoon and ended well into this evening.
An 8.30am meeting convened by the Heads of Department (HOD) Forum was aborted after the #FeesMustFall grouping refused to engage until the university management had responded to a list of 14 demands.
The demands include that senior management at Rhodes should be obliged to contribute half their salaries as part of a contribution to funding free education at Rhodes University, and that budgets should be transparent. It also includes the demands that staff who own properties that are rented out to students should be obliged to contribute profits toward funding free education.
The #FeesMustFall group have also demanded that the University write off student debt of more than R200 million.
Senior management presented the University’s response to students at an open meeting at 2pm and the multi-stakeholder engagement convened by the HOD Forum started around 3.30pm.
In a notice posted on the Rhodes SRC page this evening, the University’s Communications and Advancement Division said the university’s teaching programme would remain suspended for Tuesday 27 September 2016, to provide space for further meetings to take place.
“The sustainability of higher education funding is a national problem,” the post said. “Several departments will be creating spaces for discussion on the current state of financing of higher education, and we encourage students and staff to use these spaces to express their views.”
The University appealed to academic departments to make material available online to students.
“We are working towards resuming formal teaching on Wednesday 28 September,” the statement read.
