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Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande this week tabled government’s fee support for students for 2017 – telling the nation that universities will determine their own increases, but that these increases should not exceed 8%.
Nzimande added that students from poor, working class and the so-called missing middle families would be supported by government to a greater degree than before.
What was supposed to be a unifying move in the battle for free tertiary education instead plunged universities into crisis as students staged protests across the country – forcing most institutions to suspend academic activities.
Students openly vented their frustration – some buildings were torched and others damaged – and had running battles with police and private security personnel.
What is clear, according to Nzimande, is that free education now is not possible.
The country’s economy is weak, it’s fiscal position parlous and the tax burden has been increasing yearly.
The destruction of university property by students is fast eroding the public’s sympathy to the real issues students want addressed – that access to higher education should not be a commodity for those who can afford it, but open to all.
Amid all this, Nzimande tabled government’s plan to assist the very poor and those from working and middle class families.
To this end, government extended its student’s assistance programme to students who come from families who have a yearly income of up to R600 000.
There have been calls that Nzimande should have dictated to universities what percentage increase they should impose.
The danger in this would have been the perception of dictatorship as universities are autonomous and make their own decisions.
Had Nzimande made such an order, students would have been the first to intervene if the minister were to again overstep his mark and tell universities what to do in the future – a situation the country cannot afford.
While the presidential Commission of Inquiry into Higher Education and Training continues to do its work, and without an alternative to Nzimande’s plan, the country should rally and find ways to make the plan work.
Until the inquiry is finalised and a blueprint for funding has been finalised, Nzimande’s proposal is the only solution in the short term.
