Universities South Africa said it is working with the Department of Higher Education and the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, to ensure a smooth start to the 2018 academic year.
USAf issued a lengthy and detailed statement on Monday on deliberations it had following last month’s surprise announcement by President Jacob Zuma that government would be introducing free higher education to poor and working-class students who met certain criteria.
The issue was also clouded by a call by the EFF for learners who had previously passed matric to go to the universities of their choice to register for 2018, even though most institutions closed their registration processes last year already.
In the statement, USAF said, “notwithstanding all the concerns that have been raised, their key challenge now is to do their best to make the new system work.”
“It has enormously powerful positive ramifications for young South Africans, for the university system and for South Africa as a whole,” USAf said.
It said that any higher education system in the world that is unaffordable to the majority of people in that society is, by definition, in a state of continuous crisis. “There are many reasons for this and the primary one is that universities are social institutions that must work towards building more equal, more just and more democratic societies.”
“USAf and its member universities subscribe fully to the constitutionally enshrined injunction that education be made progressively available to all South Africans. As such, any barrier to the realisation of this objective must be addressed.
“While we acknowledged the huge advances in state funding of the National Students Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) especially during the tenure of Dr. BE Nzimande as Minister of Higher Education and Training, we were also deeply concerned by the spectre of runaway debt and the fact that the NSFAS loan system did not quite reach all students that were in need of financial support including some who qualified through the means test but who remain unfunded.”
“It is for this reason that we welcome the announcement of the new student funding system by President Zuma because of its potential to address the question of affordability of higher education and post-school education and training more generally.”
“The key question then is how to ensure that the new student funding system works well for first-year and returning students in 2018, taking into account that there are just a few days for its implementation,” said USAf.
“This is a challenge not just for the universities but also for the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), NSFAS and the entire South African society. As mentioned above, a USAf-DHET-NSFAS meeting held immediately after the President’s announcement on the 16th of December, provided the basis for the development of a joint understanding of the potential risks that may arise because of the short timescales involved and what steps might be taken to mitigate against these risks.”
USAf, said “notwithstanding concerns about a lack of consultation and a lack of a clear implementation framework, Universities South Africa, and we believe all public universities, will invest all their energy and creativity to make this epoch-making system work.”
It has appealed to all students, parents, communities, social and political formations and other role players to contribute positively and constructively to ensure that our public higher education system fulfils its purpose for the greater good of our society.
