ISRRT_COVID-19_book

eginning of 2021. This meant a shift in the calendar for the higher education institutions.
Registrations could only commence in March, instead of January. This was fine for the
institutions that could not complete the 2020 academic year in December. The impact of
COVID-19 on the socio-economic aspect of the communities resulted in a number of students
not being able to pay their tuition fees for 2020 and therefore could not register for 2021
academic year. This culminated in some departments in the faculty struggling to meet their
registration targets. This was due to the many uncertainties.
Applicants seem to be comparing the institutions according to their management of the crisis.
Selection lists were populated according to the regulations as it was in the past. There was a
list of accepted students, those on the waiting list and those who were not accepted. It was
my first experience to see the departments calling everyone was selected, going through the
waiting list and even requesting permission to reconsider the students who were not
accepted, but still met the entrance requirements. It was a long a tedious process.
Society was very unsure whether the educational activities would be restored in the year
2020. There still appeared to be the need to maintain social distancing and putting on of the
masks. Maybe less students’ intake would be a blessing that overcrowding will be lessened.
The impact on the universities’ income could not be ignored.
Conclusion
The presentation of the students’ perspectives would be better if it were taken directly from
their words. This is however not possible at this stage due to time constraints and in due
course we hope to do that. phase If ISRRT plan a further book about COVID-19, we
recommend that it could contain empirical work and focus on the actual experiences of
radiographers and radiography students and the communities in which they live and work.
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