CAPE TOWN - Universities are coming under increased financial pressure to maintain their operations and infrastructure, as fee backlogs continue to mount.
As UCT students on Thursday disrupted lectures for a second day and shut down campuses, Universities South Africa (Usaf) said until there was a national system that provided the “missing middle students” with financial aid or an income contingent system, the problem would persist.
Usaf chairperson, Professor Ahmed Bawa, said about R16 billion was currently owed to universities, and it was impossible for the debt to be simply written off.
“This is money needed for maintaining the infrastructure, operations and other responsibilities.
“This is a very significant amount of money and cannot simply be wiped out unless some new funding strategy is put in place by the government.
“The missing middle are the ones mainly vulnerable to the outstanding fee debt challenge.
“The challenge is that there is no national system or government support to cater for the missing middle. They form about 20% of the student body and their debts are very high,” he said.
At UCT, some students apparently tried a new concept of “digital protest” on Thursday, by trying to interrupt online lectures.
At the heart of demonstrations is the registration exclusion of students who have outstanding debt, and those whose registration is pending, while allegedly being denied access to academic materials.
UCT spokesperson, Nombuso Shabalala said they were concluding the registration of 26 000 students, and all faculties and departments were hard at work to ensure the academic project was delivered.
She said the UCT Executive has met all the SRC’s demands including giving students, who are awaiting the outcome of appeals, full access to Vula, the student online learning platform, lectures and tutorials so that their academic programmes are not compromised.
“We have extended the deadline for students to apply for exemption as well as the grace period for outstanding fees to be paid.
“The circumstances of all students who have benefited from the concession of the R10 000 threshold for fee debt, who are having difficulty registering, will be investigated as a matter of urgency,” said Shabalala.
She said the UCT Executive has called for a special Council meeting where a proposal to reconsider the fee block policy will be tabled and the SRC will be fully represented at the meeting.
However SRC acting president, Siyabulela Plaatjie dismissed the university's claims that all their demands have been met.
He said they would continue to protest so that no learning takes place.
“During our mass meeting with students, many have reliably informed us that they still can’t access Vula or submit any work because they are not registered students, meaning the university is not being honest with us, so we are calling for a postponement of classes until Council has sat and we really know the status of those with fee blocks and those with pending registration,” said Plaatjie.
Stellenbosch University spokesperson Martin Viljoen said the university spent a substantial portion of its income generated through state subsidies and student fees to student bursaries each year, but the institution was experiencing increased financial strain.
The outstanding debt for the graduating class of 2021 stood at R16.3 million and at the end of 2020, the outstanding debt was R367 million.
“The subsidy and fee income has come under pressure. SU is committed to the long-term financial sustainability of the institution. The university also remains committed to working with the higher education sector towards finding systemic and sustainable solutions to ensure financial sustainability for universities and access to higher education for our students,” said Viljoen.
He further mentioned the university was in the process of partnering with most major banks to provide exclusive student loan options at preferential interest rates and terms to qualifying students.
UWC’s Nashira Davids said the outstanding historic debt balance for years 2021 and older indicated that 34 895 students owed more than R473 million.
She said the university has contingency measures in place to ensure that there was no operational impact.
Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) spokesperson Lauren Kansley said the students who were progressing academically were allowed to sign an acknowledgement of debt form in order to facilitate this academic year registration.
Cape Times