Fee increases only for the rich - UCT

While projections show that 16 universities could be in the red next year, UCT has suggested fee increases only be applied to the wealthy.

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Cape Town - While projections show that 16 universities, including three in the Western Cape, could be in the red next year, UCT has suggested fee increases only be applied to the wealthy.

While possible fee increases for next year have not yet been decided, universities said a revenue increase of at least 8 percent was needed to balance their books.

UCT has now suggested that if the shortfall in revenue cannot be covered by the government and/or business, fee increases should only apply to wealthy students.

In a communique to staff and students on Sunday, UCT vice-chancellor Dr Max Price said universities would prefer the majority of the 8 percent increase in revenue to come from the government.

They said, “in recognition that there has been a chronic underfunding of higher education”, which had resulted in fees being increased over a number of years.

“However, if the funding cannot be found from the government and/or business, without doing too much damage to the economy and other government programmes, then UCT has suggested the following compromise: keep the fee at the same level for students from households earning below, say R500 000 a year, and allow universities to increase fees in real terms for students from higher-income households above that threshold.

“There is no good reason why wealthy students should benefit from reducing real fees for a further year (in other words, when fees do not adjust with inflation, they become cheaper in real terms, since salaries go up at least with inflation, as do all other expenditure of a household).”

Minister of Higher Education and Training Blade Nzimande was scheduled to announce his recommendations to university councils on possible fee increases for nex year on August 12, but postponed his announcement.

Last week, in a reply to a parliamentary question from the DA, Nzimande outlined the findings of a study conducted by the Council on Higher Education.

On Friday, in a letter to staff and students, CPUT vice-chancellor Dr Prins Nevhutalu called on students to remain calm and wait for the announcement on possible fee increases.

In a letter to students on August 16, Stellenbosch University vice-chancellor Professor Wim de Villiers said the university and the rest of the sector acknowledged the country had an unequal society with an affluent and upper-middle class that could afford higher education, and a large component of lower-middle class and poor students who could not pay their way.

In a statement released on Monday, Belinda Bozzoli, the DA’s spokeswoman on higher education, said much of the current crisis had to do with the government’s “massification” approach, which had led universities to take in more students than they could handle or afford.

ilse.fredericks@inl.co.za

Cape Argus