Students still hold trump card over rest of Wits' year

28 October 2015 - 02:29 By Shenaaz Jamal and Jerome Cornelius

The reopening of Wits University remains in the balance after student leaders denied having come to any resolution or agreement with the institution's management yesterday. Academic programmes at Wits are set to resume today after the student representative council last week spearheaded a historic national protest against fee increments and shut down campuses all over the country.After succeeding in their demand for no increase in tuition fees for the 2016 academic year, the SRC said yesterday that it was only a "small victory" because students had not yet "won the war against financial exclusion"."We have not had discussions with management and have not agreed to their nine-point resolution. We find a number of things that we do not agree with in the resolution," said Wits SRC president Shaeera Kalla.Wits undertook to attend to the increase of the advance fee, restructure the exam timetable and establish an internal commission to investigate outsourcing and possible alternative models.Kalla said no decisions had been made on the reopening of the university. If issues were not dealt with, students would decide whether to start another protest.Wits spokesman Shirona Patel said: "Management is pleased that the academic programmes can now continue.''Management is also committed to working with students on the nine-point resolution," Patel said.Revised exam timetables are to be released by week end.In Western Cape, campuses remained closed at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, UCT and the University of the Western Cape...

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