UB fails to issue graduates certificates
Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Friday November 8, 2019 14:46
It is now more than three weeks since Mmadikolo, as the public higher learning institution is called, held its graduation ceremony, but the graduates are yet to be furnished with their certificates. The institution is set to incur costs after promising to courier the certificates to the graduates.
A notice to students on the issue seen by this publication from the Academic Services management states that the delay has been caused by a technical hitch experienced during the production of certificates, which were supposed to have been issued immediately after graduation. “We have engaged a technical team to work on the challenges and we do not hope that they will be able to have everything back to normality within a fortnight. We intend to send your certificates to you by courier once they are ready. We therefore humbly requests you to leave your contacts with our member of staff responsible for your faculties so that we can call you once they are ready and send them accordingly. We do apologise for the inconvenience caused and thank you in advance for your understanding,” read the notice to the students.
Mmegi learnt that the delay in issuing certificate has not gone down well with many graduates who saw this as a serious setback in their future plans and job-seeking intentions. This issue has now clouded the excitement of graduating for them, as they are unable to register with the Directorate of Public Service Management (DPSM) for government placement.
Sources close to the developments at the university have said that the problems are bigger than this as the printing machines were long out of service before the graduation ceremony.
“Things are not done right here. Imagine graduates can’t even register with DPSM because of this. I am told the printing machines have long been out of service but no plan was made to address the issue before the graduation. We can’t be serious and graduates are suffering because of this,” said one member of staff who spoke on condition of anonymity.
When contacted for comment the university’s Director of Public Affairs Mhitshane Reetsang conceded that indeed the graduates were yet to be issued certificates because of the printing issues. However, she could not go into details as she requested to be sent a questionnaire that she had not responded to Mmegi at the time of going to print.