Statement by the Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Blade Nzimande on the 2014 Registrations and Funding of Academically Deserving ...

Attention: All media

For immediate release: 30 January 2014

    Statement by the Minister of Higher Education and
Training, Dr Blade Nzimande on the 2014 Registrations and
 Funding of Academically Deserving Students from Poor
              and Working Class Households
As the Minister responsible for Higher Education and Training, I am concerned with
the developments that have taken place over the past few days in relation to issues
of registration and provision of loans and bursaries to students at higher education
institutions. Allow me to place on record that the Department of Higher Education
and Training upholds the right of non-violent protest by students or any constituency
at any post-school education and training institution and welcomes the active
participation by the South African Students Congress (SASCO) to alleviate and
resolve the challenges facing our higher education system. The Department of
Higher Education and Training has noted the concerns raised by SASCO in its
statement on 26 January 2014 and met with the SASCO leadership yesterday to
clarify and address these concerns. Two weeks ago I met with student organisations
and at this meeting all sides agreed to work constructively and co-operatively to deal
with whatever challenges we face. I still intend to meet with the representatives of
Vice-Chancellors as soon as possible.

Government has to date put in place a number of initiatives to alleviate the burden of
fees from poor parents and students in South Africa at both public Universities and
Further Education and Training (FET) colleges by providing loans and bursaries to
students from poor and working class households through the National Students
Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS). NSFAS is the primary tool to ensure access for poor
students to post-school education which has since its inception assisted over

                                                                                    1

1.4 million students. NSFAS constitutes one of the ANC government's major success
stories. The budget of NSFAS has increased substantially and almost tripled from
R3.1 billion in 2009 to just over R9 billion in 2014 in order to keep pace with the
increasing number of students who need assistance to attend public FET colleges
and universities. This includes the Department’s grants together with other funding
sources to support needy students in universities and colleges. Notwithstanding this
huge increase over a relatively short period of time, the demand last year by eligible
students at universities accounted for a shortfall of R2.6 billion.

In respect to the shortfall of funds, the Department has made available an additional
amount of R1 billion sourced from the National Skills Fund (NSF) to all universities to
cover the 2013 and 2014 shortfall for continuing students. The Department has also
actively engaged with Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) to support
students at universities. The SETAs have responded positively and have committed
to assist with funding the shortfall, addressing scarce and critical skills in their
sectors.

The NSFAS budget for the 2014 academic year will assist more than 430 000
students at all 25 public universities and 50 public FET colleges.

Allow me to correct a misconception being portrayed by the media, amongst
students or institutions regarding previously funded NSFAS students being
prevented from registering for the 2014 academic year. In this context of limited
funds, students who have performed poorly in 2013 will most likely not be funded in
2014. University and college students who received NSFAS funding in 2013 should
not be prevented from registering in 2014 because of outstanding fees. NSFAS has
already made advance payments to the value of 10 per cent of an FET college’s
2014 annual allocation and is waiting for similar advance payment requests from
universities.

A challenge still exists within the system where students who may have applied for
NSFAS funding but did not receive funding last year due to limited available funds,
have continued to study for the whole of 2013 without funding and now cannot
register for 2014 due to outstanding student debt. This, together with the rise in
tuition and other fees which is decided by each university, and the increasing

                                                                                     2

number of matriculants qualifying to undertake studies at post-school education and
training higher institutions, further compounds the challenges faced by the system.

The 2010 Report of the Ministerial Committee on the Review of the NSFAS
concluded that one of its major shortcomings is that funding falls far short of
demand. Although NSFAS has received a steadily increasing budget, it is unable to
adequately support all financially needy students. Some universities have adequate
funding to grant full loans to needy students whilst historically disadvantaged
institutions, which have a larger number of financially needy students, usually adjust
loans to the number of needy students, by reducing the size of the loans in order to
spread the funds across to a greater number of students. This practice often results
in financially needy students obtaining partial loans which do not cover all necessary
fees including boarding, lodging and books. This puts these students at risk as they
cannot make up the shortfall, and therefore face the possibility of dropping out and
accumulating debt. Every year the issue of historic debt resurfaces and this has
been putting a strain on the system and universities.

South Africa is a developing country with many competing priorities. While we
understand that Government has different priorities to accommodate within the
national budget, the Department is seeking through different processes such as the
Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and other engagements, to secure
more funding for loans and bursaries to address the shortfall within NSFAS.

NSFAS as part of its turnaround strategy has initiated a transformation programme
aimed at providing more efficient and effective financial aid to students. Key
principles of the NSFAS transformation project includes a central application process
for loans and bursaries, new central loans and bursaries administration process and
appropriate governance and internal controls.

The new loan management system was implemented in October 2013 and as with
the introduction of new technologies and processes, there have been teething
problems which resulted in the delay of payment for 2013 students. This is being
dealt with operationally and NSFAS has been requested to ensure continuous
communication with institutions so that the situation can be managed without
disadvantaging students, especially those who need to register during this period

                                                                                      3

and whose accounts have not been paid. A second set of challenges relates to some
of the12 pilot institutions, comprising

7 universities and 5 FET colleges, where students have indicated their dissatisfaction
with the introduction of some of the new measures and hence have requested further
consultation. What seems to be communicated by students is that the system does
not allow for inter-personal negotiations because it is web-based. The Department
and NSFAS are continuously engaging with all stakeholders in this pilot phase to
ensure that the lessons learnt and challenges raised are acted upon. It must be
remembered though, that this is a pilot based at a few institutions and therefore
feedback is required in order to improve the systems as we move forward. We must
ensure the successful implementation and adoption of the NSFAS transformation
programme pilot, since it is aimed at providing financial aid to students more
equitably, efficiently and effectively than in the past.

The Department has been in touch with all our universities since November 2013
with regard to their admissions and registration plans. The responses were very
good and positive in this regard, in that all the institutions indicated that they had put
plans in place. Thus far none of the protests have been directed at the lack of
institutional plans, disorganised admissions or registration processes. The main
issue that has been raised by students relates to financial assistance.

Since the announcement of the matriculation results, the Department has been
keeping in touch with universities on a daily basis in order to monitor their
admissions and registration processes. The reports submitted by universities have
indicated good progress with regard to the registration of first year students and
registration of returning students.

We have been made aware of protest actions that took place at the University of
Johannesburg, Durban University of Technology, Mangosuthu University of
Technology and Tshwane University of Technology. As has been seen in the media
over the last few days, the occurrence of violence and destruction of property has
occurred at a few institutions. In most cases the incidents have been adequately
dealt with by institutional management. I would like to put on record that I have faith
in the capabilities of the individual institutional management to deal adequately with
these situations and challenges. My major concern is the disruption of academic

                                                                                        4

progress and agony that is suffered by new students at universities and the parents
of these students. I hope that the meetings we have had with stakeholders will help
to address these. I also wish to strongly condemn any disruptions and destruction of
property, and urge all to desist from this.

The Department will continue to engage with institutional management and student
leadership at various institutions, and some of these discussions have led to
resolving many misunderstandings.

The Department will also continue to monitor the situation and act proactively to
assist and advise institutions, students and parents. Institutions are also requested to
treat students with dignity and respect and provide all the necessary support in
dealing with registration and financial assistance matters.

We urge all stakeholders to constructively engage with each other to ensure a
smooth registration process. We must not allow any of the challenges we face to
negatively affect the registration process and the smooth beginning of the academic
year. We urge all institutions' management to engage with students and all other
stakeholders. Similarly, as per our agreement, we urge students to use strikes as the
last resort and seek to engage management first.

I wish to reassure all our stakeholders of Government’s commitment to address the
challenges facing the post-school education and training system and its efforts
towards realising fee-free education to academically deserving poor students in
South Africa.

Ends

Media Enquiries:
Ms Kefilwe Manana Makhanya
Chief Director: Communication
Makhanya.k@dhet.gov.za
012 312 5024
072 285 8662

                                                                                      5