Johannesburg - A study by two Stellenbosch University (SU) commerce academics has concluded that cost-free higher education does not make economic sense.
The quantitative research by E de Jager and R Baard, from SU’s school of accountancy, was published in the latest edition of the South African Journal of Higher Education.
The study said though it was granted that free higher education might be the leading way out of poverty and to increase economic growth, “the implementation of this possibility unfortunately does not seem to make current economic sense”.
Free tertiary education was currently offered to students who came from households with incomes of less than R350 000 a year.
The #FeesMustFall protests on university campuses in 2015 and 2016 demanded free higher education for everyone, in principle.
De Jager and Baard’s study explored responses of 1201 economic and management sciences students from SU, 76.4% of which were white.
“The results indicate that most of the economic and management sciences students do not seem to think that 'free' higher education is economically feasible in South Africa, as only 23% viewed it as possible and 62% viewed it as not possible,” concluded the study.
“Students (66%) also responded negatively to the statement that the government is able to implement 'free' higher education. Only 21% agreed that the government would be able to implement 'free' higher education.
“The majority of the respondents (56.5%) indicated that the economy was too weak and unstable to implement “free” higher education,” said the report. This “weakness” was blamed on a weak tax base.
“(The) students were of the opinion that part of the reason for the weak economy was the fact that only a small percentage of the population currently pays tax. It would therefore place an unfair burden on the taxpayer to carry the full cost of 'free' higher education.
“In addition, 39.9% of respondents indicated that, due to high levels of corruption and wasteful spending by government, 'free' higher education would not be possible.”
De Jager and Baard estimated it would cost about R90.5billion to implement “free” tuition fees over the next three years.
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