The government has set aside almost R4bn to implement the first part of its plan to extend the national tertiary students loan scheme to include the “missing middle”, those who have traditionally not qualified for state assistance.
On Sunday higher education, science & innovation minister Blade Nzimande outlined the first phase of the state’s comprehensive student funding model, which will target students in the missing middle category.
The “missing middle” refers to those students who come from households with an income above the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) threshold yet cannot afford university or technical and vocational education training college fees. This translates to those earning between R350,000 and R600,000, making up 11% of the population.
Nzimande said “government has committed the initial capitalisation fund totalling R3.8bn to support the loan scheme in 2024”.
This comprises R1.5bn from the National Skills Fund, an agency set up mainly to support and upskill unemployed youth, and R2.3bn from sector education and training authorities. This amount is to fund 47% of missing middle students — 31,884 of the estimated 68,446 total.
This makes up the first of two phases of the new programme, covering the 2024 academic year. The next phase is set to cover the rest of the decade from 2025 to 2034. Nzimande said the higher education department “will ensure that the seed funding contribution by government is increased” from R3.1bn to R4.2bn annually, for the 10-year period.
The SA Union of Students (SAUS) welcomed the intervention, which is “long overdue”. Despite debate about whether the government can fund such a scheme, SAUS says the plan is feasible. “We believe the money is there. It’s about priorities. This is not spending on a nonessential item. Education is essential,” said SAUS spokesperson Asive Dlanjwa.
As with existing funding programmes, the new facility will be administered by NSFAS.
The government is also set to provide funding to beef up the technology and administration capacity of the agency. It says between 2019 and 2022 NSFAS disbursed R123bn, distributed across 2,918,624 beneficiaries.
Acting chair
In addressing recent allegations around corruption at the agency, Nzimande said Prof Lourens van Staden, the former vice-chancellor of the Tshwane University of Technology, has been appointed acting chair of NSFAS with immediate effect.
The minister also confirmed the agency had its own investigation into the matter.
“The acting chair will also prioritise the employment of a new CEO and fully implement the Werksmans report that was commissioned by NSFAS to look at corruption and other shenanigans that were taking place, especially around the service providers who were providing allowances to students.”
Former president Jacob Zuma announced free higher education for poor and working class students in 2017 in a shock move that flew in the face of the findings of the Heher commission, which had concluded that free higher education was unaffordable and should be provided only for students in the technical, vocational education and training sector.
A report from the Davis tax committee reached similar conclusions and proposed a hybrid system of grants for poor people, government-backed loans for the missing middle and fees for the wealthy, which it said at the time would require an extra R15bn a year.
The cabinet has acknowledged that there are problems with the current funding model, and in 2021 asked Nzimande to come up with an alternative model, which is now being implemented. With Tamar Kahn
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