Cape Town - A Cape Town family, desperate for their children to obtain degrees, were forced to extend their bond to cover the high cost of university fees as they do not qualify for government-funded financial aid.
The Brackenfell family represents thousands of other parents who find themselves in a tight spot – earning just too much to qualify for the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), and too little to comfortably afford the exorbitant cost of repaying debt in respect of university fees. Others, still, don’t have access to borrowing.
NSFAS spokesman Kagisho Mamabolo said that a number of factors needed to be considered before NSFAS student loans were awarded.
The threshold to qualify for a NSFAS loan was R122 000 total household income per annum.
“(But) it’s difficult to focus on the threshold income of a family’s income. There are a number of factors that are considered by an institution which includes their (the student’s) academic performance, time of application, if the form was filled in correctly and if supporting documents were supplied,” Mamabolo said.
He said the unavailability of funds was also a problem, but added that for the 2014/2015 financial year NSFAS had granted student loans to the value of R304 million to 9 281 students at Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), where the Brackenfell family had applied.
The mother, who asked that her identity be withheld, has two children aged 20 and 19, and had twice tried to obtain funding for one of her daughter’s fees through NSFAS, but was rejected both times.
The mother, who works as a teacher, and her husband, who works in the media industry, have a joint monthly income of about R20 000. With that, they have to ensure that their daughters’ fees of R50 000 and R30 000, respectively, are paid by the end of the year.
One daughter was studying Tourism Management at CPUT and the other teaching at Varsity College.
“We pay for it out of our pockets. My daughter has applied twice for the NSFAS and has been rejected because it is deemed that our income is sufficient,” she said. “But what is forgotten is that because the prices of goods increase so rapidly, the amount reflected on application will soon be swallowed up by rising costs – petrol, food, electricity – in the following year.”
Apart from their children’s tuition, the couple have other monthly household responsibilities that include R4 000 for groceries, R3 000 for municipal bills, R3 000 for petrol and R3 500 car payments. Also on the list of expenses is R900 for car insurance. Furniture purchased on credit and cellphone contracts amount to about R3 000.
The mother said they weren’t coping and had already cut down on other things to save money.
She said they would consider applying for student loans from the bank to finance next year’s fees. A bank financed student loan has interest rates ranging from between seven and nine percent.
Over the past fortnight, thousands of students across the country protested against the high cost of university fees under the #FeesMustFall campaign, successfully calling for a zero percent increase in fees for next year. Some students have now appealed for free education.
She said: “The peaceful protest was justified; students understand that rising fees impact on their lives currently and in the future.”
But fees could not be free because universities needed to function as institutions.
However, she said, children who excelled, should be able to qualify for discounts.
She called on NSFAS to screen students and their parents more effectively. “There are students who have repeated subjects and who still get funded.”
Cape Argus