‘We spent two years already doing this’: Limpopo Uni students deregistered on the brink of graduation

JOHANNESBURG - Two University of Limpopo students on the brink of graduation have taken the institution to court in a bid to have their abrupt deregistration rescinded, and their master's degrees conferred.

According to the university, Philisiwe Cele (33) and Ntandomayenziwe Mnguni (34), who both hail from KwaZulu-Natal, were “erroneously” registered for a course they did not meet the general admission requirements for. 

They were both roughly two years into their course when they were notified.

The two women both studied at the Durban University of Technology (DUT), where they graduated with a national diploma and a B.Tech in Library Information and Studies.  

In 2017, they would become classmates at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), where they were enrolled for honours degrees in Library and Information Science.  

After graduating from UKZN, they both applied and were accepted for a master’s degree programme at the University of Limpopo in 2021.  

"Being accepted is a lengthy process, so there's a lot of steps that go into that. So, it's a privilege. It was a privilege at the time. It was a big deal, and I was excited," said Mnguni. 

Over the next two years, Cele and Mnguni focused on their respective research projects, juggling both work and their studies. 

Cele’s research was about the accessibility of public libraries during the COVID-19 lockdown period, which included several trips to the Msunduzi library in Pietermaritzburg.  

Mnguni was working on a quantitative study researching the effective use of the online public access catalogue at the Durban library in KZN.  

Spanning three provinces, Mnguni found herself having to be everywhere, almost at once: working in Bloem, studying in Limpopo, and collecting data in Durban.

"That was very, very challenging for me. So, there was a lot of investment financially. Mentally, it was just daunting," said Mnguni.  

In October 2022, after a year of studying, researching and drafting their dissertations and successfully defending them to internal and external examiners, the students thought they had completed their master’s degrees.  

Their research supervisors wrote to the university saying their dissertations had incorporated all inputs from internal and external examiners, recommending them to be conferred a master’s degree qualification.  

But in late October of the same year, the two women received an email from the University of Limpopo that would completely alter the trajectory of their lives.  

The university informed them their B.Tech degree was "not permissible by the university".

For the next few of months, Cele and Mnguni would send several emails to university staff seeking clarity on their situations, without ever receiving a response. 

On 1 February, they received letters from the registrar terminating their studies with the University of Limpopo for failing to meet the general admissions requirements.  

The termination letter came with an option to appeal, and when their appeal was rejected, they opted to lawyer up and take the university to court.  

UNIVERSITY EXPLAINS

University of Limpopo Vice Chancellor Professor Nehemiah Mokgalong said the two women were not supposed to be accepted into the institution’s master’s degree programme.  

"I wish to state her admission was done erroneously as there was an administration oversight," said Mokgalong in a court affidavit.  

Mokgalong explained the university decided to terminate their registrations due to their B.Tech degrees not being on the same level as a bachelor's degree.  

Mokgalong said a B.Tech degree has a 120 credit rating, while a bachelor's degree (from a mainstream university) has a 360 credit rating.  

Credits are the number of estimated hours required to achieve the qualification.  

"In order to be admitted to a programme of honours degree at the University of Limpopo institution, a prospective student must have a bachelor’s degree which has at least 360 credits," said Mokgalong.  

"The applicant's credit score is lesser than what is expected as the minimum requirements for admission into an honours degree."

Mokgalong said it was irrelevant that the two women were accepted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal for their honours degrees, since each higher education institution has its own admission requirement policies.  

He said to be admitted into a master’s programme at the University of Limpopo, a prospective student must be in possession of a matric certificate, a bachelor's degree with 360 credits, and an honours degree with a 60% average.  

Mokgalong said while the two women were accepted into the university, their acceptance letters had disclaimer clauses, notably if the university "establishes that there is an oversight. In such an instance, the university will rectify the error and communicate the change to the applicant within a reasonable timeframe."

Mokgalong acknowledged that while the women received motivations from their supervisors to be awarded their master’s degrees, it was not accurate that they were close to graduating.  

He revealed their dissertations were yet to be assessed by several committees, including the senate, which has the authority to certify that a student has completed their studies.  

The vice-chancellor said the university had proposed a settlement to the two students, which would require them to re-register for their master’s degrees through the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) pipeline, with the institution taking care of all the financial aspects. 

Mokgalong said RPL would bypass the issue of their educational qualifications not being enough to be admitted into a master’s programme. 

‘MISREPRESENTATION’             

In their similar responding affidavits, Cele and Mnguni claim the vice-chancellor is misrepresenting the credit rating of a B.Tech degree.  

They said while a B.Tech degree has a 120 credit rating, it is a postgraduate qualification and cannot be measured in isolation without the accompanying national diploma.  

A national diploma, which is required to qualify for a B.Tech degree, has a 360 credit rating, according to the South African Qualifications Authority.  

The women argue their B.Tech degrees are cumulatively worth 480 credits, which is higher than the required 360 by the University of Limpopo for bachelor’s degrees. 

They both also have an above average 60% for all their qualifications.  

In addition, they are arguing the clause in the acceptance letter of a "reasonable timeframe" should be rejected, since the university waited two years before terminating their registrations.

EMOTIONAL IMPACT

Cele and Mnguni are both currently employed as metadata librarians in two different universities based in Johannesburg.  

In her court affidavit, Cele shared a provisional acceptance letter to study her PhD at the University of South Africa (UNISA) in 2023.  

Cele said the acceptance was later withdrawn after she failed to show she had a master’s degree.  

"I think I by now I would have finished with my PhD, or I would have been closer to finishing it,' she said.  

Cele said she felt "ashamed" of her situation since her friends, family and colleagues knew she was doing her master’s degree but she cannot explain why she didn’t graduate. 

Cele said not having a master’s degree had majorly stifled her career.

For Mnguni, the past two years had been depressing.  

"There was a time where I was on antidepressants because I needed to cope with the whole situation. It was so difficult, especially because they [University of Limpopo] were not communicating anything with us. It was so, so difficult. And my mom as well. She didn't understand what was going on because everyone was expecting that I was going to graduate," she said. 

For both women, the proposed settlement of redoing their master’s degree through RPL was out of the question. 

"We spent two years already doing this, had you guys declined our registration or application at the beginning, there were many other opportunities. We could have pursued further with UKZN, or did it elsewhere," said Mnguni.

"I believe there are processes in place to try and see that everything is aligning, and you meet the requirements, we didn’t wake up and accept ourselves."

LEGAL CASE

Former Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Secretary General Godrich Gardee, who is an admitted attorney, has taken on this case through his law firm, Gardee Godrich Attorneys.  

Gardee said there was a clear injustice happening, however, the bigger question this case should answer was whether technical universities were perceived as "glorified high schools". 

Gardee said the University of Limpopo and UKZN were on equal standing, so it would not make sense for UKZN to accept a B.Tech for their honours programmes, and the University of Limpopo to not.  

"If the court agrees with how the University of Limpopo continues to argue as they do, then it means we must close shop [techikons]; they must remove the word university. They must call it ‘college of technology,'" he said. 

"They must not even use the word university, because the word university of technology creates the impression to the rest of the country, the kids and their parents that they are going to a university when actually they are going to a college," said Gardee. 

The matter is due to be heard at the Limpopo High Court on 6 November.