University of The Bahamas President Doctor Rodney Smith along with other UB officials sought to bring some relief to the registration process that has been a source of contention for students for quite some time.
Dr. Smith said the University launched a new online registration system called Banner designed to bring efficiencies in the registration and online bill paying process.
Yesterday he acknowledged that they have run into some problems with the system.
“Unfortunately, we have encountered a number of circumstances which have prompted us to activate immediate contingencies.
“Additionally, this semester, there appears to have been an increase in the number of students seeking our deferred payment method plan.
“We discovered that these students account for the majority of the students on the lines at the Portia M. Smith Building.
“Many of the students on those lines are also being processed for the Ministry of Education’s bursary and Teacher Education Grant,” he said.
To help curve this vexing issue, Dr. Smith said the University has implemented some key adjustments.
“The deadline for the payment of tuition and fees has been extended to Monday 7th January 2019 at 4:00PM.
“Thereafter, the process of deregistration will commence. However, the University will extend its operations into the weekend in order to complete registration for students.
“The student services offices within the Portia M. Smith building will be open on Saturday, 5th January and Sunday, 6th January, from 9:00 A.M to 5:00PM.
“This includes the cashiers, Ministry of education, Financial Aid and Registrar’s offices. Classes commence for spring 2019 on Monday, 7th January,” he said.
President Smith also told reporters that he is not expecting this issue to affect the University’s brand.
“I’m not concerned about it affecting the university’s brand, because from my own personal experience, I know that this happens at other universities as well.
“I think that in The Bahamas we only have the experiences of the past, so we make the assumption that we’re either going backwards as suppose to going forwards so it has the appearance maybe of going back to what it was before but in reality that’s not what’s happening at all.”
“We’re actually moving forward, but we have those steps that we have to go through in order to clean it up as we go forward,” he said.
The University has enrolled some 4, 800 students, 500 of which are fasted with this problem.
Provost Linda Davis said the University is committed to doing everything in their power to address the short comings of this registration process.
