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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
In every year since then, student protests have erupted in some form or another at different universities across the country.<\/p>\n
Most recently, students embarked on a hunger strike at the Wits University earlier this month, making demands around accommodation, registration fees and financial exclusion.<\/p>\n
Similar protests emerged at the Durban University of Technology, which ended in tragedy after a student was shot and killed by private security.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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’.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The new regulations must still be drafted and put forward for public comment.<\/p>\n
Rise of private universities<\/strong><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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).<\/p>\n Brands within the Stadio group include film school AFDA, Embury, fashion institution LISOF, Southern Business School, Prestige Academy and Milpark Education.<\/p>\n Stadio\u00a0expects 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.<\/p>\n AdvTech, meanwhile,\u00a0is currently investigating the potential to build a new private university in the new Sibaya Coastal Precinct on KwaZulu Natal\u2019s north coast, which is said to have space for 10,000 students.<\/p>\n The group most recently acquired Monash South Africa, adding it to its exiting portfolio of Varsity College, Rosebank College, and Vega.<\/p>\n
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