A shocking 385,664 out of 919,986 assignments submitted by Unisa students in the first semester were not marked.
And almost 150,000 of the 386,037 students registered for the first time last year passed less than half of their modules in 2022. This included 37,813 recipients of bursaries from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (Nsfas) who did not pass a single module.
These figures are mentioned in court documents by Unisa’s suspended registrar, Prof Steward Mothata, who is asking the Pretoria high court to declare that the university council is no longer “properly constituted” after the resignation of several members.
Mothata was placed on precautionary suspension by vice-chancellor Prof Puleng LenkaBula on June 5 for allegedly breaching confidentiality, abuse of office, dishonesty and insubordination.
He was also accused of “sabotaging the academic project” and “dereliction of duty” for failing to advise the council and its committees, as well as LenkaBula, on governance matters.
His suspension came in the wake of a report by independent assessor Prof Themba Mosia into the affairs of Unisa, which recommended that the university be placed under administration and the council and management be relieved of their duties.
Mothata’s application will be heard on July 11. A table containing figures for the unmarked assignments, which was attached to his court papers, reflect the period up to the end of last month.
In his affidavit, Mothata stated that students’ assignments had not been marked “despite the fact that the exams have already started”.
“Without the marked and returned assignments, students are likely to repeat the same mistakes they would have made in the assignment and are likely to fail.”
He stated: “The prevailing situation can simply not be allowed to continue. It has to be said that Unisa is part funded through public funds and the majority of its student population come from impoverished backgrounds.”
He alleged that “Unisa is in such a shambolic state due to poor governance by council and mismanagement by the vice-chancellor, the result of which is also a dismal failure by her to ensure that students’ assignments are marked timeously prior to them sitting for the final exams”.
“Simply put, the students take final exams without any form of qualitative academic instruction. The prospects of success in the circumstances are extremely remote.”
What’s the point of writing assignments and spending time on them if they don’t get any feedback?
— Prof Steward Mothata
He claimed that this “is a textbook example of a wanton infringement” of the constitution.
“In these circumstances, the apprehension of harm in the form of not being successful in the final exams is real.”
He told the Sunday Times that students whose assignments were not marked were complaining, adding: “What’s the point of writing assignments and spending time on them if they don’t get any feedback?
“The marks obtained in assignments for most modules form part of a student’s year mark. Students need to obtain a certain percentage in their assignments to be admitted to write the exams.”
Meanwhile, Mosia confirmed in his report that during interviews he conducted, he received a number of complaints about the late release of students’ results for assignments and exams.
“Many students complained that they don’t receive their results before the exams. One student reported that ‘we have had to write examinations without feedback on our assignments. This is a concern that students have raised countless times, but which seems to have fallen on deaf ears’.”
Unisa’s assessment policy makes it clear that students must receive feedback on their assignments before they write exams.
The policy states that instructional feedback is fundamental to the learning process and that “lecturers will provide timely and constructive feedback that identifies where misunderstandings have occurred”.
According to Mosia’s report, the results of a 2020 survey for more than half of the items measuring student satisfaction with assignment and exam assessments recorded index scores of below 60 points, which is regarded as sub-standard.
Unisa did not respond to queries that were e-mailed on Friday morning.
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