Government plans to regulate university fees: report
Higher education minister Naledi Pandor says that the government is working on plans to regulate university fees, by removing an “autonomy decree”, which allows institutions to determine fees themselves.
According to a report by the City Press, the new regulations are expected to come into effect in 2020, and will impact all 26 public universities in South Africa.
Rising university fees have been a focus over the past few years, since students first took to the streets in protest under the Fees Must Fall banner in 2016.
In every year since then, student protests have erupted in some form or another at different universities across the country.
Most recently, students embarked on a hunger strike at the Wits University earlier this month, making demands around accommodation, registration fees and financial exclusion.
Similar protests emerged at the Durban University of Technology, which ended in tragedy after a student was shot and killed by private security.
Government has been under pressure to act on the demands of students, as universities have released statement after statement saying they cannot comply with their demands.
It has made a few attempts to quell the growing anger, by increasing financing to universities (which allowed them to initiate zero-percent increases for the most vulnerable), as well as increasing access to student funding for the so-called ‘missing middle’.
This culminated in a parting ‘gift’ from former president Jacob Zuma in 2017, where he promised that the government would deliver fee-free education – a policy that was formally adopted by the ANC during its conference, and has now been left to president Cyril Ramaphosa to execute.
For their part, universities say that they will likely go bankrupt if all student demands were met, and if education is forced to be free of charge.
According to Pandor, universities have told the department that fees are hiked because government does not give them enough money – but now that Treasury has committed to driving 1% of GDP to higher education within five years, this is no longer an excuse.
The new regulations must still be drafted and put forward for public comment.
Rise of private universities
As with South Africa’s schools, the country enjoys several tertiary education options within the private sector – which has seen some growth over the last few years as student protests at public institutions made headlines.
Two listed private education companies, AdvTech and Stadio Holdings (Curro’s private university business) already have a strong presence in the private university market, with plans to expand their offerings in the country.
Stadio currently owns 6 registered higher education institutions that are aimed at providing programmes, both undergraduate (including bachelors degrees, higher certificates and diplomas) and post graduate (including honours and masters degrees).
Brands within the Stadio group include film school AFDA, Embury, fashion institution LISOF, Southern Business School, Prestige Academy and Milpark Education.
Stadio expects to more than triple its enrolments by 2030 and is in talks to set up a medical school joint venture with a government tertiary education institution.
AdvTech, meanwhile, is currently investigating the potential to build a new private university in the new Sibaya Coastal Precinct on KwaZulu Natal’s north coast, which is said to have space for 10,000 students.
The group most recently acquired Monash South Africa, adding it to its exiting portfolio of Varsity College, Rosebank College, and Vega.
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