It is that time of the year for new students to flock to different university institutions after they've received their matric results. But here at the North West University's PUK campus everything is running smoothly and it is business as usual.

  According to it’s spokesperson, Mr Louis Jacobs, registrations for first year students closed last year between August and September and the university system only work on preliminary admissions and set certain targets for applications. He added that the university do accept late applications, but on exception.

  At this stage, there are no queues for registration and they are ready to welcome new students on 14 January.

  But at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) students are facing long queues in a desperate attempt to claim a place at the university during it’s late registrations. This caused a stampede which claimed one life and left seventeen others injured, as reported in daily newspapers.  

Late applications are an annual phenomenon as thousands of matric learners wait for their results before applying at a university to further their studies.

  One student who didn’t want to be mentioned said, “we rush for late applications because we need to register. We need education but are reluctant to register with Grade 11 results that are in some instances not as good as it should be and only wait for the matric final results so that we can be sure that we have passed. It is only when we have the results that we rush to universities to apply late.”