Cape Town – Vice-Chancellor at the University of Cape Town (UCT) Max Price on Thursday reiterated his stance that he opposed students’ calls for free education for all.
“I cannot support a call for free university education which is the call of many student formations,” said Price during a media briefing in Cape Town.
“The call I can support is for free education for the poor or for those in need,” he clarified.
Price’s briefing followed the university’s announcement on Thursday morning that it – alongside the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union Joint Shop Stewards Council (Nehawu JSSC) – had signed an agreement to end all outsourcing. The briefing was to elaborate on this decision and update media on recent developments at the university.
Price’s stance on free education, which he had expressed last week saying he believed no fees would have a negative impact on lower income families, matched that of Minister for Higher Education and Training Blade Nzimande’s statement on the matter. Nzimande, during his presentation to Parliament’s portfolio committee on higher education and training, said government’s stance was that education should be free only for the poor.
However, despite the matching stance in this regard, Price said government had reacted to the nationwide demands for the scrapping of all university fees incorrectly.
“We reacted and that to me is an indictment on the government because the issue of funding higher education has been discussed at a number of commissions,” said Price.
“We have known we have this problem and we have not addressed it. Responding to it in a crisis leads to poor decisions”.
Price said he was of the opinion that the decision of zero percent increases for everyone needed to be reversed after 2016.
“What we should have had was a zero percent increase for the poor and the normal increases for others,” he said. “There must be significant and appropriate increases for those who can afford it”.
Price said it was unfair to allow wealthier families to forgo fees. He explained that if these students were made to pay fees and related increments, it would increase government and universities’ subsidising of poorer students’ education.
“Why should relatively wealthy people be subsidised by the government to get that education? In my view, that is not reasonable,” he said, proposing instead that the country move towards a differentiated fees system where wealthier people pay higher fees and the poor people pay no fees or fees with very small percentage increases.
On wealthier students, Price said some families had called the university to let them know they were willing to pay fee increases in order to better the chances of poorer students accessing education.
He added that members of UCT’s alumni and key donors had also expressed a desire to assist the university and its students from lower income families.
Price made additional suggestions to resolving fees issues in the long-term. These included graduate tax and an altering of the financial aid system.
“Another form of funding support is some sort of graduate tax,” said Price. “There is plenty of research and evidence that having the benefit of university education massively increases your prospects for getting a job and massively increases what you earn”.
Price said that in addition to government’s funding of higher education, individuals should be made to pay a tax once they have graduated or become employed.
“Beefing up the financial aid system” was Price’s final suggestion, saying financial aid needed to cover all of a student’s costs, not simply tuition fees.
African News Agency
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