16 Feb 2017

The Minister for Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology, Dr Alfred Madigele says University of Botswana will re-open on March 6, after it was closed following a strike by the students.
Addressing Parliament on February 15, Dr Madigele said disciplinary action would be taken against individuals who looted or caused malicious damage to property.
Dr Madigele said disciplinary action would also be extended to officials at the institution and at Department of Tertiary Education Funding (DTEF) as they did not ensure allowances were paid on time.
The students’ discontent mainly revolved around late payment of allowances, non-accredited programmes and high prices charged by book shops that operate within campuses.
The minister said before a student could be given an allowance, the institutions should have submitted information to  DTEF on that student’s registration status at the beginning of every semester.
This, he said, was a control measure geared towards avoiding paying students who may have discontinued.
Dr Madigele said DTEF sponsored students received their January allowances in December, hence there were no complaints.
He said, in processing the February student’s living allowances, all institutions were expected to submit academic results and registers to DTEF on time to enable the department to update each student’s status and process their payments.
“Unfortunately, most institutions failed to comply with this requirement. Consequently, students’ allowances were not credited on time,” he said.
The minister said it would not be advisable to continue paying students allowances when there is no evidence from the institutions that they are active as it could lead to a phenomenon known as ‘ghost students’.
“Such instances arise when payments are made to students who do not exist, some of whom may have discontinued their studies at the end of the semester,” he said.
He said in order for DTEF to pay allowances on time, institutions need to review their processes, particularly the administration of supplementary examinations, the processing and release of results and the management of registration.
Dr Madigele said some of the programmes the students were enrolled in were not fully accredited. “It is worth highlighting that the current scenario is a product of a transition of past regulations that allowed students to enroll for programmes which could be provisionally accredited, approved but not yet accredited,” he said.
The minister said before the establishment of the Botswana Qualifications Authority (BQA), higher education institutions were accredited by the Tertiary Education Council (TEC).
At the time of handover, some programmes were on approval stage and BQA instructed all institutions to submit the affected programmes for accreditation, but most of them failed to do so.
“BQA could not close these providers because there was no legal provision or such an action,” the minister said.
He further said, following a meeting in May 2016, the programmes were approved for six months for purposes of sponsorship. In terms of the BQA Act, all institutions, either public or private are to be registered and accredited. He said a programme cannot be offered until it has been accredited.
Dr Madigele said government sponsorship for all new students would be confined to accredited programmes only.
“It is therefore incumbent upon all the institutions to ensure that their programmes are accredited,” he said.
He said with regard to students who are already enrolled in programmes that are not fully accredited, institutions will be expected to ensure compliance within the next six months.
He said the book allowances are paid directly to students except for students enrolled at UB, Limkokwing, Botho University, Botswana Accountancy College and Botswana International University of Science and Technology, where allowances are paid directly to institutions and credited into students’ cards.
The institutions have contracted private bookshops and students can only buy the required learning resources from the on-campus bookshops.
Dr Madigele said students are of the view that the book allowance should be credited into their accounts as it is done in other institutions, promising that such would be implemented next academic year. ENDS