Wits Vice-Chancellor Professor Zeblon Vilakazi said despite outstanding student debt of R1 billion rand, the institution remains committed to assisting as many academically talented students as possible.
“The issue of student funding is a national, system-wide issue, which Wits cannot solve alone. The state and other social actors have a critical role to play in resolving this crisis. We need an urgent national debate on this crisis, and our students need long-term, definitive solutions to funding higher education.”
Vilikazi was speaking after the fatal shooting of Mthokozisi Ntumba, allegedly by police officers, who opened fire with rubber bullets, during a protest by Wits University students in Braamfontein on Wednesday.
Vilikazi said it’s worrying that student debt has doubled since 2017 and stressed that while the university will do all it can to assist students, the institution has to remain financially sustainable.
“It is not true that Wits has excluded 6 000 to 8 000 students. This number refers to all the students who owe Wits money over the last seven years, including some of whom have dropped out and others who have been academically excluded for failing multiple times, and who have lost their bursaries as a result.”
According to the university, about 1200 students have requested financial assistance from the Wits Hardship Fund for this academic year and it has already assisted 750 of these students who meet the criteria. Vilikazi said Wits registered 95% of its 2021 student cohort (35 841) out of about 37 500 students, including most first-year students. There are still two postgraduate intakes in July and September.
But it is not all doom and gloom. Crowdfunding platform, Feenix agrees with Vilikazi: “When it comes to our economic prospects as a country, it is abundantly clear that we need to work together to make sure a solution is found for the funding problems experienced by university students”.
Feenix CEO Leana de Beer said as the 2021 academic year is about to kick off, many families have no idea how they will be able to pay for studies this year.
“The problems at the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) are also well documented, but there is a way of working together to fix the problem by collaborating with the private sector, to ease the added strain and legacy issues that NSFAS faces,” she said.
This, in turn, has created a knock-on effect, which de Beer said placed additional strain on traditional sources of alternative financial relief such as NSFAS and other government funding, which supports approximately 40% of university students across South Africa.
While clarification has been given by NSFAS that Bachelor of Education (BEd) and Bachelor of Nursing (B Cur) programmes will still be funded, the funding organisation remains under severe pressure to finalise applications of more than 800 000 students for 2021.
There is some hope, however, as de Beer said unconventional sources of student financing, like Feenix, can help to fill this gap and provide an alternative way for students to secure the funds they need to study.
“Feenix connects students who owe university fees with funder communities to assist them to fund-raise for their student debt via an online crowdfunding platform. To date, about R71 million has been raised on the platform towards the student debt of more than 1900 university students,” she added.
Students who have benefited from Feenix crowdfunding said:
Hirome Shigeaki – University of The Western Cape, BSc. Occupational Therapy, 2020.
“I am Hirome and I am 23 years old. I am biracial (Coloured and Japanese) and live in Worcester. I was a Sassa Grant student and my parents (guardians) used this money to help pay for my fees, however, I do not qualify for it anymore due to my age. Also being classified as being in the “missing middle” is difficult to qualify for bursaries such as NSFAS and many others.”
Johannes Manganyi – University of Johannesburg, BEng Mechanical Engineering, 2020, fourth year
“The Covid-19 pandemic came without warning for most of us, as we were not expecting it to reach us while most did not even learn about it until it appeared and changed the normal form of life as we used to know it. This makes me even more eager to excel academically as there is a need for creativity, skills or talent, technology, entrepreneurship and inventions for the new life and age that is to become from now on moving forward.”
Dean Kleinbooi– University of KwaZulu-Natal, Medicine, Graduating 2021, Fifth year
“Studying itself is stressful as every student knows but (Being a recipient of the #CaptheGap campaign’s resources) took that extra burden off of my shoulders and I can only thank Feenix for that".