Walter Sisulu University Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Professor Rushiella Songca’s benevolence has benefited over 1000 students through her R8 million donation towards their registration fees with funds acquired from WSU’s research publications.
In addition to this multi-million Rand benefaction is a personal endowment of one hundred thousand rand from Prof. Songca towards WSU Convocation’s “Graduate Debt Clearance Fundraiser”.
Amongst benefactors are those students who have been administratively excluded by NSFAS, Engineering students, Extended Curriculum Programmes and students with a pass aggregate below 55%, but beyond 50%.
According to WSU records, 72% of the University’s registered students are on the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).
“WSU relies heavily on public funding, which includes block grant, NSFAS and even bursaries,” said WSU Chief Executive Officer, Morgan Nhiwatiwa.
Prof. Songca holds a Doctor of Laws (LLD) Degree, specialising in Human Rights, Children’s Rights as well as Trans-Disciplinary studies.
She strongly expressed how children and their rights have always been close to her heart growing up. She added that we should all work together to find workable solutions and avoid academic disruptions as much as we can because of their negative impact.
“Today is about balancing student rights and entitlements with their responsibilities. I think the first thing we must remind ourselves is that our students are as intelligent as those from privileged backgrounds. Therefore, given the same opportunities, good education and support they will equally perform or surpass their counterparts from privileged environments,” said Songca.
WSU is amongst historically disadvantaged universities that were established as non-white universities and were poorly funded compared to the whites-only universities.
Prof. Songca is also a C-Rated researcher according to the National Research Foundation (NRF).
The NRF rating system is a key driver in the NRF’s aim to build a globally competitive science system in South Africa. The rating of individuals is based primarily on the quality and impact of their research outputs over the past eight years, taking into consideration the evaluation made by local and international peers.
By Sinawo Hermans