Windhoek
The current student debt on the University of Science and Technology (NUST)’s books stands at N$149 million.
Of this amount, N$126.8 million is owed by students currently registered and N$ 22.2 million is owed by students who have not re-registered this academic year.
This was revealed by NUST spokesperson Kaitira Kandjii in an interview with New Era yesterday, in which he said students registered for the current second semester have already settled their outstanding debts and that any non-compliance is being attended to.
“Unsettled debt and poor funding seriously hamper the smooth operation of the University, not to mention the necessary growth and expanded mandate it has to realise,” he reasoned.
The ballooning student debt has prompted the university to recruit a new student debt collector, as the previous one proved to be unresponsive to the situation.
New Era has been reliably informed that the Office of the Bursar made a robust submission to NUST executive committee on August 3 to approve VeriCred Collections as its new debt collection agency and hand over of the 2015 student debt with a value of N$11.8 million to that firm.
According to the submission seen by New Era, for too long there have been two main players in the industry, namely Revenue Solution Namibia (RSN) – formerly known as Snyman&Partners – and J&P Debt Collector, both of which the university previously had agreements with.
Further, it shows that an assessment on the performance of RSN for the period 1997 to 2014 was made, where the university noticed a clear decline in its performance.
The assessment showed that the current debt handed over to RSN was over N$48 million, but only N$6.5 million was collected over eight years.
Currently NUST has a debt collection contract with RSN.
When asked whether NUST has any plans to write off student debt for the period in question, he said the figures are outdated, as most of that debt had been written off and is no longer on the institution’s books as outstanding debt.
The submission further reveals that NUST learned from other local institutions about how they dealt with debt and who was handling their debt collection function.
“We came across VeriCred Collections, a well-established debt collecting company, mostly in South Africa, which joined the Namibian market about three years ago. It handles the debt collection of many South African universities and Unam, locally. They have a good reputation amongst the institutions and charge a commission fee of 20 percent, all inclusive,” the submission read.
VeriCred Collections’ accounting system can interface with the university’s IT system, which means NUST student accounts can be updated by a remote upload from their system.
Another motivation to approve VeriCred, is that RSN charges commission of between 15 and 38 percent, depending on the age of the debt. Additionally, they appear to have other charges, such as telephone expenses, which are passed onto the students.
Their system is also said to be incompatible with the university’s IT system and all payments are usually processed manually one month in arears.
Asked if NUST’s earlier stance not to allow students to sit for final exams is still in force, Kandjii explained that the policy confirmed that students with outstanding debt are not permitted to write exams if their accounts are in arrears, adding that any other provision is the prerogative of the council.
He urged students to make monthly payment towards their debt and to settle their accounts (as stipulated in the general information and regulations yearbook.
“This will avoid complications at the time of examinations, the release of final results and registration in the following academic year,” he said.