The Wits Student Representative Council (SRC) is urging returning students who need financial assistance to apply for the institution’s hardship fund.
Applications opened on January 5 and will close in early March.
The fund caters for all students whose annual household income falls under the R600 000 threshold and whose academic average is at least 50%.
It assists them with registration and accommodation money.
Approved in 2018, the fund is aimed at assisting students, known as the missing middle, who are too poor to afford university themselves but also not poor enough to qualify for government funding.
Beneficiaries of the fund are decided by a discretionary committee made up of the institution’s SRC, the Deputy Vice Chancellor: Academic, the Dean of Students, the Registrar, and the Finance Executive.
For the 2020 academic year, the fund helped almost 1 000 students. – Report by Voice of Wits reporter and newsreader, Yonaka Theledi.