No pass, no varsity fees

Blade Nzimande. Image: GCIS

"We are funding people to progress, not to stay at tertiary institutions and become professional students," Minister of Higher Education and Training Blade Nzimande said.

Speaking in Pretoria, on Thursday (30 January) after a week of student protests over funding, Nzimande announced that his department had allocated an extra R1bn to help remedy a R2.6bn shortfall in the National Students Financial Aid Scheme.

The chief executive of the scheme, Msulwa Daca, said the Department of Home Affairs would help to verify documents that students handed in to support applications to study.

Luzuko Bashman, the Western Cape chairman of the SA Students Congress, which organised the protests on campuses nationwide, welcomed Nzimande's announcement. But he said it was sad that they had had to take to the streets and be arrested by police before their cries were heard.

Education analyst Graham Bloch said the financial aid scheme depended not only on government funding but also on repayment of loans. Students often refused to do this, arguing that their studies should be free.

Fees must be repaid

"Someone needs to speak to university students and say: 'You are among the elite. About 90% of you are going to get jobs, so you have to pay back [loans] when you earn," said Bloch.

The president of the Congress of South African Students, Collen Malatji, said Cosas was impressed by the minister's swift response. The student body had met Nzimande and other government officials on Wednesday (29 January) after calling for a boycott of the general elections.

"The boycott plan had been put on hold," he said.

Students must repay education loans say analysts. Image: Journ'Tau

Malatji said Cosas wanted the government to further increase funding to reflect the greater number of matriculants entering the higher education and training system.

Hundreds of thousands of matriculants have swamped universities with applications for a total 127,800 first-year spots at the 22 universities in the country.

And the DA Youth staged a 24-hour sit-in outside the Pretoria offices of the Department of Higher Education calling for the full R2.6bn shortfall in the aid scheme's funds to be covered by the government.

"Providing less than half of the required amount means that thousands of poor students are still going to be left behind this year," said DA Youth chairman Yusuf Cassim.

The budget for the scheme has more than tripled since 2009, from R3.1bn to R9.7bn in 2014, to keep pace with the increasing number of students who need assistance to attend public FET colleges and universities.

This academic year the scheme will help more than 430,000 students at 25 universities and 50 FETs.

Further disruptions

The scheme and Sasco this week attributed problems with funding to the increase in university fees.

On Thursday (30 January) Durban University of Technology students were arranging to go home after being instructed to vacate their residences.

"This is unacceptable. We are very angry about the way we were kicked out and we vow to continue our fight when the institution reopens," president of the students' representative council, Ayanda Ngidi, said. Lectures were cancelled and students were told to leave after protests turned violent at the university.

Also on Thursday, students disrupted lectures at the Tshwane University of Technology's campus in Pretoria. A spokesman for the Pan Africanist Student Movement of Azania, Vusi Mahlangu, said students wanted salary cuts for all senior managers and directors, a review of the cases of students expelled and suspended for leading protests, and a decrease in residence and tuition fees.

University spokesman Willa de Ruyter said other campuses were also affected by protests.

Source: The Times via I-Net Bridge