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Midlands SRC Creates Fund For Financially Needy Students

Midlands SRC Creates Fund For Financially Needy Students

The Midlands Student Representative Council (SRC) has brainstormed and come up with an initiative which will help students in need of financial assistance during their studies at the University.

The project, called the Midlands SRC Ubuntu Fund, officially started on 15 February 2015 as a strategic plan by the body that will be able to help students in financial need and meet them halfway, even if the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) cannot assist them with funding.

Midlands SRC General Secretary and fourth-year Bachelor of Education (Bed) student, Menzi Ngcobo, said that last year (2014), the SRC saw that the NSFAS problem was bigger than they had anticipated. “The SRC then decided to launch the fund this year (2015) and see how much money we could raise while we are still waiting for NSFAS to respond. This is going to assist students who are in need with funds, whether they passed, failed, are in need of academic or counseling support. Whatever the case may be, we want to raise as much money as we can so that we can give the student a full package, not just money for registration or tuition, but money for residence, books and meals. This is a fund that’s going to cater to the students’ needs completely so that they can feel that if they work hard, they will be able to be assisted financially because we have really needy students in the Midlands, specifically because of our democratic setting,” he said.

DUT Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Professor Ahmed Bawa, saluted the Midlands SRC for the project and showing such commitment and dedication towards their fellow students. “As we are all aware, some of our students continue to face serious and intransigent financial aid challenges. Student leadership in the Midlands has been working feverishly to address these. The fund will be available to support students who are in serious need while they are at University,” said Prof Bawa.

He also said that the Director of the Midlands Centre, Dr Martin Mandew, will assume fiduciary

responsibility for the fund and will be its signatory. “As Vice-Chancellor, I fully endorse and support this innovation. I encourage students and staff to support and to contribute to this fund. The Midlands SRC has a campaign slogan: R100 – 1 student/staff. I hope that staff members across our University will see this as a worthy cause to contribute to. I will be working with the SRC to encourage business and community organisations to actively work with and support the fund,” he said.

Andre Le Roux, Finance and Information Services Manager in the Midlands Centre, said the Midlands SRC Ubuntu Fund Cost Centre has been established for donations.

– Waheeda Peters

Pictured: Fathima Haffejee, Director of Student Services and Development at the DUT Midlands Centre, Andre Le Roux, Finance and Information Services Manager at the DUT Midlands Centre and Nkosinathi Phungula, Education and Transformation Officer in the Midlands SRC, donate R100 to the Midlands SRC Ubuntu Fund.

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