Postgraduates are a gap in government’s fee-free plans, Pandor concedes
Higher Education and Training Minister Naledi Pandor on Thursday conceded that the government’s new policy on free higher education had not made provision for postgraduate students, and suggested the private sector could hep fill the gap. The policy, announced by former president Jacob Zuma last December, provides tertiary education bursaries for people from households with an annual income of less than R350,000. It covers the full cost of study, but only at undergraduate level, posing a headache for universities seeking to increase their pipeline of researchers. "There has to be attention (paid) to the improvement of funding postgraduate students. We need to ensure we provide adequate resources," Pandor told reporters ahead of her budget vote speech to Parliament. "My sense is that it is one of the domains in which there is significant possibility for partnership with the private sector. Other countries have done this well. I think it is an area we could explore," she said. Pandor ...
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