Fees must fall: Members of the ANC and the EFF block traffic in
Braamfontein, Johannesburg. Photo: Luca Sola/AFP
As Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande continues to try to find a solution to the demands raised by university students, the South African Union of Students (Saus) has vowed that it will continue with its national shutdown of universities until student demands are met.
Nzimande, Saus and Universities South Africa (USAf) appeared before an urgent higher education portfolio committee meeting on Wednesday to discuss the student protest.
Last week, Saus called for a national shutdown of universities after its demands — mainly regarding funding — were not “satisfactorily” responded to by Nzimande. The demands include allowing students with historical debt to register, and the clearance of historic debt.
This week several higher education institutions participated in the shutdown.
On Wednesday, Nzimande said he could not stay for the whole meeting as he had been “running around” trying to find solutions. He said he was meeting with a “very important person” whom he would not mention, who needed a report of the issues.
Nzimande said in a meeting with vice-chancellors on Tuesday they said that they would deal with student debt on a case-by-case basis and would register those students who are doing well academically, provided they sign an acknowledgement of debt.
He said it was mostly the “missing middle” students who face the challenge of student debt. These students do not qualify for the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, but cannot afford higher education.
“What we are trying to do now is to collect accurate information for us as the government, to say what is the number of these missing middle students, or the category who are owing. We need to understand that properly to know the scale and nature of the problem.”
Nzimande said that the department was facing a dilemma: universities are focused on fixing the problem on a case-by-case basis, but students are demanding that this issue should be resolved for everybody in the same way.
“It cannot be done for everybody in the same way by the universities, because of these inequalities in our institutions,” said Nzimande.
The chief executive of USAf, Professor Ahmed Bawa, told the committee that it estimated student debt to be around R14-billion, but that the figure could be more.
“The student debt challenge is massive. I would just indicate that there is no indication of national government support for this to the universities. However, the minister did mention yesterday (Tuesday) that we needed to provide him with data,” said Bawa.
He said universities alone could not solve the problem of student debt.
“In a democracy like ours, we cannot have a higher education system that excludes individuals because it cannot be afforded by those individual students. There needs to be a long-term sustainable solution for funding higher education. The scale of the challenge requires it to be a national solution.”
The president of Saus, Meshack Mugabe, said the portfolio committee needs to initiate a motion in parliament concerning the clearance of student debt.
Mugabe said student debt was the “big elephant” in the sector that is troubling students and universities. He said the government needs to find a lasting solution to the issue of historic debt.
In a statement on Monday, the South African Student Congress (Sasco) said its top five leadership had met with the ANC top six, including Finance Minister Tito Mboweni, Nzimande and other ministers. Sasco said the two meetings with the top six had been “positive”, and it hoped that before the end of this week there would be a lasting solution on issues of historical debt and student funding.
The Mail & Guardian also understands that the ANC’s national working committee (NWC), which sat on Wednesday last week, said Mboweni must “find something in the national fiscus to assist higher education”. A party leader who sits on the NWC said President Cyril Ramaphosa agreed with the rest of the top six that Mboweni must accommodate students when he delivers his medium-term financial expenditure framework (MTEF) later this year.
“There was a common understanding by the NWC that we need to find a way to invest more in education. Once we see education as a cost, we are not helping ourselves,” the insider said.
Another insider said the treasury would look at the country’s tax and tariff structure to raise the billions needed to sustain higher education.
“Treasury has indicated that it will first look at our tax and tariff[s] for import and export. It is one of the solutions which will be announced at the MTEF,” the second party insider said.
Meanwhile, Mugabe told the committee that the national shutdown would continue until all the students’ demands had been met.
Who qualifies for NSFAS?
The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) is an entity of the higher education department whose purpose is to fund tertiary studies of disadvantaged students. According to the scheme, it has funded about four million students since its inception.
A student must have been accepted at a university or a Technical and Vocational Education and Training college to receive funding. Before 2018, the scheme was a loan scheme where students would have to pay it back once their studies were complete.
However, in December 2017, former president Jacob Zuma announced that the scheme had turned into a bursary scheme.
But people who NSFAS funded before 2017 still have to pay back the loan.
Students whose household income is below R350 000 per year qualify for NSFAS. For students living with a disability, the combined income must not be more than R600 000 per annum for them to qualify for the scheme. Students who are beneficiaries of the South African Social Security Agency also qualify to be funded.
Once a student has received the funding, they need not reapply as they are automatically funded for their studies’ duration.
However, in cases where a student fails to excel academically, they face losing the funding. But NSFAS, through its N+2 rule, makes provision for students who might fail or for whatever reason might not finish their studies in record time. For instance, if a degree will take up to three years, the scheme allows you to finish it in five years, but it can no longer fund you after five years.
Even if you have changed a course or an institution, NSFAS cannot fund a student for more than five years.
Over and above tuition fees, the scheme also pays for accommodation, provides for textbooks, transport, living and personal care allowance. The scheme pays for private accommodation for those students who do not stay on campus, but the rent must not exceed the institution’s residence fees. Students who receive the transport allowance are those who stay off-campus — Bongekile Macupe
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