{"id":2083,"date":"2016-12-06T11:48:17","date_gmt":"2016-12-06T09:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/studentnewsgrid.com\/?p=2083"},"modified":"2020-07-21T08:08:11","modified_gmt":"2020-07-21T08:08:11","slug":"wits-no-choice-fee-increment-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/2016\/12\/06\/wits-no-choice-fee-increment-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Wits: no choice in fee increment for 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This year fees did not fall, they froze and next year they will continue to increase. Yesterday the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) announced that there would be a fee increase of 8 percent for 2017, saying it had no choice if it was remain financially viable.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nWits said, \u201cThe university has no choice but to increase fees if it is to remain financially sustainable.\u201d Wits explained that a fee increment is necessary because of the running costs of the university. For 2017 Wits will accommodate the costs of insourcing.<\/p>\n<p>The university also mentioned the state subsidy as another reason for why a fee increment is needed. The 0% increase for 2016 was compensated for by the state.<\/p>\n<p>Wits said, \u201cWe have been recently informed that the 2016 fee increase will now be rolled into the subsidy, the net effect of which is that our subsidy increase for 2017 will be only 2.5%.\u201d This means that Wits\u2019 income from the state will decrease approximately by R54 million for 2017.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2084 size-full aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/studentnewsgrid.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Deficit-forecast-Wits.jpg\" alt=\"deficit-forecast-wits\" width=\"977\" height=\"388\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The 2017 fee increment is 8% for tuition and residence fees. This increase also applies to international student fees. However postgraduate programmes in the Wits School of Governance will experience a 9.5% increase.<\/p>\n<p>While there will be a fee increment for 2017, Wits has reiterated its pledge to free education. \u201cThe university remains committed to working towards achieving access to quality, free higher education.\u201d For this goal to be realised, Wits said that the financing of higher education has to be reorganised at a systematic level.<\/p>\n<p>Following news of a fee increment at Wits, students took to social media to express their unhappiness and anger. Busiswe Catherine Seabe, Wits Fees Must Fall leader, posted Wits\u2019 statement on <em>Facebook<\/em> and commented on this decision. Seabe said, \u201cIf you increase fees, we will have no option but to use any and all means necessary. Where there is oppression. There WILL be resistance!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/remembot\/status\/805802543884496900?lang=en<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Wits?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Wits<\/a> University Fee Increase is the biggest middle finger to poor students.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Luke Waltham (@lukewaltham) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lukewaltham\/status\/805807184881811457?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 5, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">To compensate for the fee increase, we will negotiate with Kara Nichas to NOT increase the price of the sandwich special <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/wits?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#wits<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Deluded WITS SET (@DeludedWitsSet) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DeludedWitsSet\/status\/805802472170254336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 5, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Last year the Fees Must Fall protests resulted in a 0% increment. The protests continued this year as students want free higher education. The news of a fee increment for 2017 does not sit well with students as the above comments show. One wonders what Fees Must Fall 3.0 will look like.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This year fees did not fall, they froze and next year they will continue to increase. Yesterday the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) announced that there would be a fee increase of 8 percent for 2017, saying it had no choice if it was remain financially viable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,26,122],"tags":[155,128,121,10],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2083"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14294,"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083\/revisions\/14294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}