Durban - The University of KwaZulu-Natal is writing off tens of millions of rands in debt owed to it by students unable to use government funding.
The National Assembly’s portfolio committee on higher education heard this week that UKZN was having to write off R50 million to R70m in extra and unforeseen debt – bringing the total amount of debt to at least R170m a year.
As part of a presentation to the committee on Wednesday, UKZN vice-chancellor Albert van Jaarsveld told MPs that of its 15 000 students who qualified for the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, only 7 000 had actually received the funding.
According to a statement by DA MP Belinda Bozzoli, who sits on the committee, UKZN’s accumulated student debt stood at R814m last year, and it spent R700m of its own annual income supporting students from poor backgrounds.
On Thursday, UKZN spokesman Lesiba Seshoka said the R814m worth of debt went back 10 years, and included the money owed to it by students of the former University of Natal and former University of Durban Westville.
Seshoka said UKZN had a financial sustainability plan in place, and was working to increase its third-stream income, which typically included research grants and donations.
He said there was simply too little money in the Nsfas kitty to fund all the students who qualified – which had been acknowledged by the Higher Education Department.
While the scheme will in the 2015/16 financial year disburse R9.5bn worth of loans and bursaries for 205 000 university students and 200 000 technical and vocational education training colleges, it cannot meet the demand.
Bozzoli argued that UKZN and its students were in the red because of a lack of adequate government subsidies, and National Student Financial Aid Scheme funding.
“Universities in our country are under considerable financial strain. Adding to this is the massive push from the government to admit more students without providing adequate funding for them.
“Both the universities and the students suffer. If universities are not given the financial support they need, the ability of these institutions to provide opportunities to our young people to improve their future prospects will be seriously hampered,” Bozzoli said.
“University expenses continue to rise along with the rate of educational inflation, which is accepted as being around 8% to 10% a year, while the government subsidies continue to fall,” she said.
Higher Education Department spokesman Khaye Nkwanyana said on Thursday that the National Treasury was not a bottomless pit, and that the country had many urgent needs which all competed for a slice of the fiscus. He said that while every year the Nsfas budget grew, so did the number of school-leavers who qualified for university study.
A forensic audit of how the scheme’s funds are disbursed by institutions is under way, in an effort to uncover fraud and prevent the funds from being mismanaged and awarded to undeserving students.
The Mercury