International students can now join the nearly 245,650 or 40% of South African contact students who have already obtained permits to return to their university campuses.
South African Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation Dr Blade Nzimande announced at a virtual news briefing about the further easing of lockdown restrictions that all university students and staff could return to their campuses from 1 October, including those who were outside South Africa.
Returning international students should be able to produce a negative COVID-19 result from a test done in the preceding 72 hours before their arrival in South Africa or they will have to go into quarantine at their own expense for at least 10 days, said Nzimande.
South Africa attracts thousands of international students, in particular from countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Although many of these students left South Africa in March when the national borders closed following the implementation of the hard lockdown, others could not reach the borders of neighbouring countries in time or decided to stay because the lockdown was initially only for three weeks.
Sector overview
Nzimande, in his overview of the sector, said the latest available figures showed that 89 staff and students of the 1,979 reported cases in the higher education sector had died from COVID-19. These comprised 44 staff members and nine students from universities and 25 staff members and 11 students from technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges.
But, overall, universities are doing well to finish the 2020 academic year. According to Nzimande only seven of South Africa’s 26 universities remained in the “medium risk” category. This means that they still have to complete the first semester and exams, where required, and that a ‘significant’ number of students at these institutions were not able to continue their studies. However, students are expected to benefit from catch-up programmes to fast-track them when they return to campuses.
The ‘medium risk’ universities and the other 19 ‘low risk’ universities are expected to complete the academic year between December and early March. Nzimande said 10 universities are expected to complete the academic year at the end of the year, four will end in January, seven in February and five in March.
School exit exam
The reopening of universities for students in 2021 is also affected by the school exit examination, the National Senior Certificate, which will end later than usual due to the disrupted academic school year. The results, which the sector needs to offer placements to first-year students, will be available only on 23 February. Consequently, the academic year will start between 8 and 12 March 2021.
Nzimande said he was concerned about those students who had opted to remain at home and who learned remotely rather than returning to accommodation on and off campus as nearly 226,000 students countrywide have already done.
“While we understand and accept this, given the fear that parents and students still have, we want to encourage parents and students to ensure that teaching and learning is not compromised, as we would not like to see a lower pass rate in this academic year,” he said.