DSPW fires salvo at UB over delayed entries

CHANDAPIWA BAPUTAKI
Staff Writer | Tuesday August 7, 2007 00:00

According to DSPW director Bosele Radipotsane, when they planned their decentralisation process they had meetings with the UB's admission department to have their admission letters ready by the end of May. However, that was not to be the case and the list of the admitted students was released by mid-July while the processing of memoranda at the other regions all over the country was already completed.

'We had only very few students admitted at UB coming from those regions while the majority were from the Limkokwing University,' Radipotsane said, adding that when they got to Gaborone to finalise the signing of memoranda and expecting a smaller number of students that was when the students going to UB went in larger numbers.

Radipotsane stated that some of the admission letters were dated towards the end of July, which meant that when registration started at UB, many of the students were still queuing at Ditshupo Hall to process their Memorandum of Agreement with the Ministry of Education.

The other problem was the students who had to cancel their Limkokwing University enrolments after receiving admission letters from UB. This meant that the institution had to replace such students and the DSPW had to cancel his already processed papers and start the process afresh for UB.

However, UB's director of public affairs Samuel Moribame dismissed the allegations that they delayed the admission letters.

He stated that the dispatch of admission offers began at the end of April based on bulk processing schedules. Moribame indicated that on the basis of the outcome of these admissions published the admission list for pre/in-service applicants in the newspapers in mid-June and towards the end of June and concurrently made an impassionate plea to those admitted to contact the UB Admission Office without delay if they had not received their admission letters.

'Only a small number of those admitted did contact UB and our assumption was that the others must have received their letters in good time.'  He explained that a very small number of admissions that took place in July concerns internal applicants most of whom were UB students applying for the Post-Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE), returning applicants - 'that is those students who were discontinued or applied to withdraw from their studies and were applying to be re-admitted, those who for some reasons were changing programmes of study and those who were transferring to UB from other institutions, including the general mopping-up of admissions'.

 He indicated that their application processing was in accordance with the established admission schedule and procedures and the number is so relatively negligible that it cannot be said to be causing delays in bursary processing. 'From our point of view, we have done all that was necessary to expedite admissions to UB,' Moribame said.

Meanwhile, registration at both UB and Limkokwing universities started two weeks ago while majority of their prospective students are still queuing to process their sponsorship letters with the DSPW.