The Sunday News
The South African government has been asked to fund the shortfall in university costs after President Jacob Zuma announced on Friday that students’ fees would be frozen.
The president did not immediately comment on whether government would accede to this request. The zero-fee increase for 2016 was agreed to between Zuma‚ vice chancellors and student leaders while thousands of #FeesMustFall protesters thronged the Union Buildings. A previous agreement negotiated with the Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande earlier last week to cap fee increases at 6 percent for next year was rejected by students.
The University of the Witwatersrand’s Professor Adam Habib said the Vice-Chancellors and Chairs of Council represented through Universities South Africa had proposed to Zuma that: “All parties should collectively commit to a zero percent increase for 2016‚ with government stepping in to make up the difference”.
For their part‚ universities would independently commit to deliberate on their expenditure and make immediate efficiency gains.
Other proposals included: — “The immediate establishment of a commission to look at the restructuring of the entire system‚ including fee increases‚ subsidy and cost drivers and historical inequality‚ including infrastructure renewal.
“The establishment of a separate commission to address the challenge of outsourcing to allow universities to reaffirm our broad commitment to ethical standards.”
Students were asked to immediately return to their studies‚ ahead of exams that would be rescheduled following the disruptions to the academic programme.
After meeting for several hours‚ Zuma announced that he had listened to the views of both the university vice chancellors and students.
Zuma also said the Presidential task team that had been established to address funding mechanisms would be broadened to look at all these and other broader transformation issues affecting higher education.
“Government understands the difficulty faced by students from poor households and urges all affected to allow the process to unfold to find long term solutions in order to ensure access to education by our students.” — Sowetan.
