Johannesburg - Students appear to scored a victory in their war against the increase in university fees – but the ultimate price could be the autonomy of their universities.
While the cabinet and the National Treasury are reconsidering implementing a policy on fee-free higher education, the autonomy that the universities enjoy could be at stake as Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande is likely to review the Higher Education Act next year.
Department of Higher Education and Training spokesman Khaye Nkwanyana said the ministry had met the Treasury and Cabinet on Sunday to discuss how the no-fee policy could be implemented. Talks would continue this week.
Nzimande is said to have submitted the report on a fee-free education policy in February 2013, but the policy’s implementation was turned down by the government due to “inadequate revenue from the national fiscus”.
“The report is still with the cabinet. They will now relook at it and reconsider if there are ways to get the money to implement free education,” said Nkwanyana.
He said the fee-free education policy, which would have cost the government about R23 billion in 2013, had increased sharply. “It would cost way above R100 billion now,” Nkwanyana said.
Last week, media reports stated that Nzimande had withheld the report but the department has denied the allegations.
Following the #FeesMustFall shutdown and President Jacob Zuma’s “no university fee increase for 2016” announcement, a presidential task team has been established to look at free education, student debt and other broader transformation issues affecting higher education.
The portfolio committee on higher education and training on Sunday asked the government to accelerate free tertiary education.
“The provision of fee-free education at tertiary level is a process and not an event that would be accomplished overnight. However, it will be in the best interest of this country if this process is fast tracked,” said committee chairwoman Yvonne Phosa.
Meanwhile, the autonomy which universities enjoy could come into sharp focus next year when Nzimande is likely to review the Higher Education Act.
While there were seemingly no conditions placed on the government’s estimated R4bn “bailout” of universities, when it agreed that fees would not be raised for next year, the ANC, student leaders and higher education activists are calling on the government to curtail the autonomy of universities.
The act guarantees the institutional autonomy and academic freedom to universities, but the ANC in Parliament and the Higher Education Transformation Network say that universities have abused their autonomy in order to delay transformation.
However, UCT vice-chancellor Max Price said he was wary of calls by some in the ANC for a review of university autonomy.
“One of the important lessons from the universities in post-colonial Africa was that, at the time, two decades after independence a very low priority was given to higher education; not enough government funding, and that’s what we’re fighting against here.
“Second, (there was) the removal of autonomy from the universities where they became controlled by the state in ways which started serving state interests rather than the interests of a neutral and independent academy. We need to learn those lessons.” - Additional reporting by Lerato Mbangeni and Yoliswa Tswanya
Cape Times and The Star
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