The country\u2019s universities cannot handle another 0% fee increase and it will break down decades of hard work, outgoing University of the Free State vice chancellor Jonathan Jansen has said.<\/p>\n
A bad few months could bring down a century of good work at an institution, he said in a public lecture at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in Bellville on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother 0% fee increase, regardless of politics, will destroy our universities. You can build up a good university over 100 years, but you can destroy one in three months.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parliament’s portfolio committee on higher education heard on Wednesday that 19 universities could become dysfunctional by 2018 if a 0% fee increase was carried over for a second year, News24 reported.<\/p>\n
‘What is the end game?’<\/strong><\/p>\n Jansen said he was fine with the idea of a 0% increase, in principle, and that he was for free education for poor pupils.<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t mind a 0% fee increase, but you can’t run a university with 0%. There has to be an income increase.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the end of the day, your ability to have universities that are of a high quality depends on what you do with your money.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the economy grows at 0%, common sense tells you, there just is no extra money, for anything.<\/p>\n \u201cThe question is: what is the end game? Nobody so far – politicians, students, or educators – can come up with a solution.\u201d<\/p>\n Zuma ‘buying time’<\/strong><\/p>\n The 59-year-old said state funding was crucial if the country\u2019s universities were to survive the next few turbulent years.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat the president did though, is he appointed judges to solve the crisis,\u201d he said. He was referring to President Jacob Zuma\u2019s establishment of a judicial commission of inquiry into the possibility of free higher education. It started public hearings earlier this month.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can’t have judges [overseeing this]. This is not a criminal case, this is not Marikana. We need people with expertise.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a classic example of when you don’t know what to do, you start a commission. He is buying time.\u201d<\/p>\n Jansen is stepping down from his position at the UFS, to take up a position as fellow at the Centre for Advanced Studies in the Behavioural Sciences at Stanford University in the US next month.<\/p>\n News24<\/a><\/p>\n Zuma orders 0% university fee increase \u2013 despite threat of collapse<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Wits has just topped a second major global university ranking in SA<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n This South African university could challenge the global elite by 2030<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nMore on universities<\/h3>\n