UFS says dealing with challenges students are facing

The University of the Free State (UFS) says they have a strategy to deal with some of the challenges that students are likely to face at the institution. This after tensions erupted this week on the Qwaqwa and Bloemfontein campuses as students were demanding NSFAS food and accommodation allowances to be paid.

UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Francis Petersen says there’s been a delay in the allocation of NSFAS funding which the university is dealing with. Francis says the university has emergency accommodation for students who are stranded while they are still sorting out registration issues.

“So you might have students that come from far afield, they might not have received a response in terms of or a negative response they won’t accept or they were other reasons why they got onto campus. And what we do is we got emergency accommodation off-campus which we then support those students. And sometimes also the parents for one or two nights until they either have sorted out the challenge they’re sitting with. Whether it is registration or whether it’s more permanent accommodation outside of the university,” says Petersen.

VIDEO: Student formations call for the extension of the registration period at UFS