DESPITE requiring students to indicate their ethnic group, the University of Namibia (Unam) says this criterium is not considered in their selection process, which is based on equal regional representation.
The university’s faculty of health sciences and veterinary medicine has come under fire after claims that the majority of their intake is from one ethnic group.
This list surfaced on social media last week.
On Unam’s application form, prospective students are required to specify what ethnic group they belong to.
Using this information, Unam late yesterday afternoon revealed that more than half of the students admitted are Aawambo.
In a press statement, Unam said 41 of the 70 successful applicants are Aawambo, representing 58,6% of the intake.
Before issuing the statement, however, Unam registrar Erika Maass declined to reveal this information, saying the admissions committee does not take it into consideration during the selection of students.
“It is used for statistics but as you clearly see here it is not an admission criteria… If there is a request on how is the ethnic distribution within the university, we can use that.”
The system they use to capture student data originates from South Africa where “universities place a higher emphasis on ethnicity” than Unam does, she said.
Successful candidates are chosen based on the regional representation of their last school attended, as well as the highest performing pupils, Maass said.
These criteria are in place because the university wants these students to set up shop in their regions to ensure services are available across the country, Maass said.
“The decision is very clear that it is the last school attended because it’s the only information from the application that they can verify, and then there’s a secondary criterium, when they are tied, which is then the home address.”
Unam’s press statement notes that the top qualifying performers are academically ranked and selected in each region.
When a regional quota cannot be filled with qualifying applicants, the unfilled places are returned to the pool, and filled by the next best national candidates.
Unam does not consider whether the students reside in a specific region, only attend school there or whether they are from the area.
Each of the 14 regions in Namibia is allocated a quota based on the regional population, based on the last national census data of 2011.
Unam spokesperson Simon Namesho said the most populous regions have more students admitted to the university.
“Regional quota is calculated as follows: regional population over the country population times approved places for Grade 12s, excluding international, bachelor of science or marginalised students, equals to quota per region.
“Therefore, mathematically, regions with high populations receive higher quota allocations.”
As a result, this year’s intake shows that 59% of the 70 admitted students come from the regions of Kavango East (20%), Khomas (13%), Omusati (13%) and Oshikoto (13%).
“The remaining regions have lower representation, with Ohangwena, Oshana, Erongo, Otjozondjupa, Kavango West, Zambezi, Kunene, Hardap, //Kharas and Omaheke making up 41% of admitted students, with admission percentages ranging from 6% to 1%,” said Namesho.
“In addition, there are six international students enrolled on the 2023 first-year intake, one student from the marginalised category, and three holders of a bachelor of science degree,” Namesho indicated.
Last week, Unam admitted there is a need for diversity sensitivity, to which the university subscribes.
“It is important in a multicultural society not to arrive at conclusions just by looking at names as the only variable, as this in some instances could not be accurate.”