Crunching numbers and nudging budgets to find fees solution
As calls grow louder for the state to provide free education for all, indications are that such an eventuality will remain a pipe dream as costs in the education sector skyrocket. SA’s higher education costs grew at twice the national inflation rate over the past 20 years, as packages for tertiary administrators and managers rose exorbitantly. At the same time, state funding for higher education declined in real terms, forcing universities to impose fee increases higher than inflation to mitigate the shortfalls. Several countries that once offered free higher education including Australia, England, Kenya and Mozambique — have since implemented cost-sharing models in which students make a contribution towards the costs of study. Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande’s announcement in September that university fee hikes would be capped at 8% next year, and poor and so-called missing middle students will receive assistance led to widespread and often violent protests on...
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