Philippa Garson
OVERSEAS donors are still investing in higher education, despite fears that the escalation of violent protest and crime on campuses would scare them off.
The executive director of the Tertiary Education Fund of South Africa, Roy Jackson, said he would be “very surprised” if the campus turmoil “didn’t cause a great deal of reservation and trepidation with those giving that kind of money” but said he was not aware of any withdrawal of money so far.
Swiss, American and British donors have injected close to R20-million this year into student loans to top up the R300-million raised by government. But an estimated R650-million or more is needed in total, to meet the demand for student loans and bursaries.
But the high-profile group of businessmen and academics — headed by Dr Nthato Motlana — founded last year to raise funds for students by lobbying the private sector and devise policy to make student financing sustainable — has yet to deliver.
The committee, previously called the Eminent Persons Group, has not raised any money yet or come up with a financially viable way of running the scheme. The initial response of Motlana, who was out of the country during the official launch of the student financing scheme last week, was “What’s that?” when asked about the group and its progress.
Education director-general Chabane Manganyi, head of the government’s advisory committee on student financing, was also out of the country during the launch.
But acting director general John Samuel said the groundwork had already been done in coming up with a new financing scheme. While discussions had been held with the banking sector, no policy options were on the table yet, he said.
Jackson said significant steps had already been taken in making the financing scheme more sustainable, including the introduction of a one percent interest rate on loans, a faster pay-back system and a new incentive scheme that converts 40% of student loans into bursaries for those students that pass.
“Now there’s a carrot. It’s dangling there, saying, do well and we’ll knock off a percentage of your loan,” said Jackson.