Campus fee commission ideas too far out of box
Incredulity about plan to use R50bn from a UIF cash surplus and tapping unclaimed pension fund benefits
A degree is probably one of the best investments one can make, delivering on average twice the rate of return earned on stocks and more than five times that earned on bonds, the US Hamilton Institute says. The fact that graduates derive great personal benefit from their education is one of the reasons why the Heher commission on funding higher education recommends university students should bear part of their study costs, rather than the government picking up the entire tab. The other reason is that free tertiary education is unaffordable. "No student attends university or a TVET [Technical Vocational Education and Training] college because he or she intends in so doing to benefit the state and increase taxes," the commission says in its 752-page report. "He or she does so for the potential increase in personal or family advancement, status, income, future opportunity or, simply, self-gratification. These are lifelong advantages." Scrapping fees was a key demand of students during n...
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