Despite NSFAS allowances being allocated for 10 months to students, and payment dates set earlier in the year to include November, UCT has recently informed students the full allowance allocated to them will not be paid. 

This is problematic for many reasons, many students signed leases which they may be forced to end early, causing problems for students and their landlords. Other students are dependent on that funding and now face extra economic stress which they did not forsee and were not exactly given fair warning of, especially considering the stress of the exam season and end of academic year. Students writing sups or defferred exams are also negatively impacted by this decision.

It clearly states in the academic calendar on the UCT website the academic year ends in December, so students should receive the final payment UCT has decided it does not want to make anymore. It clearly stated students allocated funding and payment dates but now wants to breach that contract. 

This petition aims to resolve this issue, ensure UCT upholds their funding agreements which they are contractually obliged to fill, and that economic stress is not compounding students exam periods.