State urged to sell assets to fund free education

The government should consider selling nonstrategic assets to fund free higher education.

This was recommended by the heads of Parliament’s portfolio committee on higher education, the standing committee on appropriations and the standing committee on finance in a joint presentation to the fees commission on Monday.

Chaired by Judge Arthur Heher, the commission is in its final week of submissions and the finalised arguments will be submitted to the president in May for his consideration.

While the proposal to the commission did not outline which assets could potentially be sold off, the committee chairs said the country needed innovative solutions to solve the higher education crisis.

Yvonne Phosa, chairwoman of the standing committee on appropriations, said that without original ideas, funds would have to be taken from other departments to finance free higher education. She said the reprioritisation of the national budget to fund higher education would start wars among departments that already squabbled over limited resources.

"We need to find money within the available budgets," said Phosa.

Although the state had increased funds for higher education over the years, this had to fund universities, technical and vocational education training (TVET) colleges and skills education training authorities.

In their joint presentation, the committee heads noted that the 2016-17 funding of the higher education department did not match its expanded mandate of producing a "skilled and capable workforce to support an inclusive growth path".

Chairwoman of the portfolio committee on higher education and training Cornelia September said the TVET colleges and community colleges were often significantly underfunded.

September highlighted that TVETs had the ability to take in larger numbers of students and produce skilled youth that could propel the economy. "There is no economy that has grown on the back of academics only."

The committee heads also said the state needed to consider the option of increasing tax revenue with due consideration for the macroeconomic growth objectives of the state.