Durban - In a bid to address the shortages of accommodation for university students, the departments of Higher Education and Public Works are working together to identify unoccupied government buildings that could be developed as residences.
The bold plan was revealed by Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande at the Mangosuthu University of Technology on Wednesday where he was invited to speak at student movement Sasco’s policy conference.
Nzimande said the buildings would not be for university students only, but would also be extended to students who were in TVET colleges.
“As government we don’t like many places where you are staying. Some are not fit for study and some are not fit for human habitation. So we have prioritised this, we are inviting you to the student accommodation symposium in July, where we will bring everybody under one roof, the banks, insurance companies, students and vice-chancellors to say what model should we be using to upscale the provision of accommodation.
“Together with Public Works, we are engaged in the process of identifying unused and under-utilised government buildings that must be converted to student accommodation throughout the country. This time we are saying it’s not only for university, but also for Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges as well,” he said.
The minister urged students to fight the scourge of corruption at universities, and said more university beds would have been built had it not been for corruption at some universities.
“Please, Sasco, stand up to corruption – do you know how many beds have not been built because of tender processes that have been problematic.
“In some of our universities the money is sitting, but we have given it. Take up these issues and make sure these things are not corrupted,” he said.
On the question of free education, there were no plans for it to be rolled out, as Nzimande announced plans that were centred around an educational loan system that would include students from families known as the “missing middle”.
These are students who come from families where their parents earn too much to qualify for a NSFAS funding, but also cannot afford universities.
Nzimande said on progress in funding missing middle students, that there still needed to be engagement with student political movements on the model that would be required. He also revealed that the NSFAS combined household earnings would be increased from the old model of families qualifying if they earned no more than R122 000 per annum.
“We all agree that this thing of NSFAS supporting families whose income is not more than R122k p/a, we need to adjust that, as part of looking at the missing middle,” he said.
“We have an ambitious project, where we are exploring to assist all students coming from families earning not more than R600k p/a – so that at least your very poor and your missing middle students are assisted with loans so that they are not excluded,” he said.
He said a report by a working group in 2012 had formed part of his submissions to the Presidential Commission on the feasibility of free education.
He told students he was uncomfortable with the report concluding that free education was viable, but that it required money.
He told the students he had taken the report to all the relevant structures and was not sitting on it.
Nzimande also took a shot at the #FeesMustFall movement and spoke of how he rejected an invitation to engage with the group. He has previously called for vice-chancellors to negotiate with recognised student bodies.
“I was invited by something called #FeesMustFall Collective Leadership. Who is this, now? I said ‘no, I don’t know them and I am not coming’. So they attacked me and said I am not interested in consulting with students.
“I said I meet SRCs and student formations, who are you? I’m not going to meet them because I don’t want to reinforce structures that are not recognised by anybody, engaging SRCs and student political formations is what I do, that I will do”.