Max Price has been in the news a fair share of late, the UCT vice-chancellor having to appear in front of cameras on numerous occasions to address students and media.

Yesterday he once again implored students to protest peacefully, but this time he had some damning implications to help boost his plea.

We’re not talking about the boets and boetesses who may have to cancel their end of year trip to Bali with the crew either, with TimesLive reporting:

If students protests don’t cease by the end of next week the entire academic year could be lost, resulting in dire consequences for students and the country, [said Max]…

“What happens for the country if we do that? Well, for example, there would be about 2400 health science graduates in the country – about 400 would come from UCT – who are all due to start their internship or community service on January 1.

“The health service is absolutely dependent on those junior doctors, physiotherapists, psychologists and the people who are currently interns would have left – gone into other jobs, gone into senior positions or out of the sector. There would be a serious risk for public health sector collapse,” he said.

That’s just scratching the surface, of course, but the same rings true for other would-be graduates who have jobs in the public sector lined up.

Here’s Max talking about the academic year at UCT and fielding questions:

[source:timeslive]