Wits may close for the rest of the year: vice-chancellor
The 2016 academic programme is in jeopardy at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg (Wits) amid continued protests.
This is according to the university’s vice-chancellor, Adam Habib, who told Talk Radio 702 that the university would hold special General Assembly on Friday – only the 10th such meeting ever held.
He said that the assembly will be a platform for the university to say that it has arrived at a consensual position on free education. He said that the theme of the assembly will be principle of free education and how the Wits community approaches it.
The VC said that negotiations have been ongoing over the past 24 hours.
On Tuesday the university closed all its campuses following violent protests by students demanding free education. University of Cape Town (UCT) also closed its campuses for the remainder of the week.
Habib said that 17 out of 26 institutions ‘are in trouble at the moment’. “We are going to destroy higher education if there isn’t some level of rationality that emerges, among protesters, but among the stakeholders aswell.
The VC said he hoped that the university can proceed with the full academic programme on Monday. “If this doesn’t work, then we are in very slippery ground. We have two options, either to open with the police and with security services, or if that doesn’t succeed, we will have to close down, including the residences.
“It’s not a threat, it’s a simple statement of fact that if Wits University is not teaching and not doing research then there’s no purpose for it to be open,” Habib said.
Read: Here are 10 demands from the #FeesMustFall protesters
The university said in a statement on Wednesday that the resumption and completion of the 2016 academic programme is a key priority for the university in the next few weeks.
“We are revising the academic calendar and developing a new examinations timetable. These plans will be discussed at a meeting of Senate before being circulated to the university community,” it said in a statement.
The university said that it had agreed the following three points with students:
- The academic programme will resume on Monday, 10 October 2016. Students have committed to working with management to save the 2016 academic year.
- The police will be withdrawn from Wits’ campuses and will remain on the perimeter. We have the express commitment from all parties that there will be no violence or intimidation of students and staff, and that there will be no destruction of property.
- All stakeholders will work together towards holding a General Assembly on Friday, 7 October 2016. It will focus on obtaining a consensual position on the principle of access to higher education.
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