Johannesburg - Just three years after it introduced what it termed free higher education for the poor and working class, the government is once again scrambling for solutions for the country’s continuing student funding crisis.
Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande announced on Thursday that his department was due to begin work on the review of the student funding policy.
Former president Jacob Zuma announced “free” tertiary education in December 2017. This entailed the extension of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) funding threshold from R122 000 to R350 000.
The move meant students from families with a combined annual income of R350 000 or less qualified for NSFAS.
Moreover, students no longer had to pay back the NSFAS grants. The loan scheme became a bursary.
Zuma’s announcement was in response to the #FeesMustFall protests that rocked campuses in 2015 and 2016.
But student protests over funding have returned. Protests at Wits University’s Braamfontein campus escalated to the point where Mthokozisi Ntumba was killed by police.
Police who were firing rubber bullets at protesting students reportedly shot Ntumba at close range.
The Wits stand-off has the hallmarks of the #FeesMustFall protests. Both are the result of self-funding students facing financial exclusion.
These are “missing middle” students, a cohort not qualifying for NSFAS because they are from households earning above the threshold.
Parents of this cohort battle to pay their fees for the duration of undergraduate studies.
Nzimande said that the new review process the government was embarking on would look into students’ funding needs holistically, including those of the “missing middle”.
“Cabinet … agreed that a comprehensive review of the student funding policy is urgently required, and has instructed the Department of Higher Education and Training to immediately commence with this work and report back,” said Nzimande.
“The purpose of this process will be to look carefully at funding requirements to support students in financial need in the post-school education and training system, to model the holistic requirements of students, including those from poor and working-class backgrounds as well as the missing middle.”
Nzimande pointed out that student protests were driven by the cohort not funded by the NSFAS.
“Some of the demands that are being received by the government and universities relate to the debt of students who may not be funded by NSFAS but who are struggling to register because they have not been able to pay debts, and are doing well academically.
“The government is very concerned about the issue of growing student debt in the system, as are the universities,” he said. “This is an issue that will also be considered as part of the policy review.”
There have been calls that free education for all students could be a lasting solution for the funding issue.
Bamanye Matiwane, the SA Students Congress (Sasco) president, said they believed that the government should review the NSFAS’s funding threshold.
“The stand of Sasco is that the threshold of R350 000 is too low. We have long called for it to be changed to R600 000,” Matiwane told The Star.
The Star