The extent of historical debt owed to universities by former and current students will be investigated and government will devise a plan to recover the money, Higher Education and Training Deputy Minister Buti Manamela said yesterday.
“We have not quantified the extent of historical debt. The Minister of Finance, DHET and Treasury will be investigating the extent of the current and historical debt by students and make an announcement some time later in the year or whenever they are ready to inform us on what is expected to be done,” said Manamela.
Manamela was responding to questions posed by Walter Sisulu University’s senior staff where the historical debt currently sits at R850-million.
The deputy minister yesterday visited the WSU Potsdam campus and Buffalo City TVET college’s East London campus to ensure that the implementation of free higher education for poor and working class students was running smoothly.
Manamela heard of a string of challenges faced by WSU, including infrastructure challenges, lack of security, political intolerance among student organisations, the enormous historical debt and the recent violent incidents on campus which, in some cases, had resulted in death.
WSU spokeswoman Yonela Tukwayo said the university was the greatest beneficiary of free higher education as the majority of the students fall under the R350000 household income bracket. The executive director of student affairs Zoleka Dotwana said although the university received an infrastructure grant from DHET, that grant was not enough to meet its infrastructure needs.
“We have been given land in by the Lukhanji Municipality to build a proper, functional campus. We are hoping that the Department of Higher Education can assist us with developing that land,” said Dotwana.
The objective of Manamela’s visit was to ensure all students who qualified for free higher education were registered for available spaces without charging them a registration fee. — arethal@dispatch.co.za
Plan to be made to recover universities’ historical debt
“We have not quantified the extent of historical debt. The Minister of Finance, DHET and Treasury will be investigating the extent of the current and historical debt by students and make an announcement some time later in the year or whenever they are ready to inform us on what is expected to be done,” said Manamela.
Manamela was responding to questions posed by Walter Sisulu University’s senior staff where the historical debt currently sits at R850-million.
The deputy minister yesterday visited the WSU Potsdam campus and Buffalo City TVET college’s East London campus to ensure that the implementation of free higher education for poor and working class students was running smoothly.
Manamela heard of a string of challenges faced by WSU, including infrastructure challenges, lack of security, political intolerance among student organisations, the enormous historical debt and the recent violent incidents on campus which, in some cases, had resulted in death.
WSU spokeswoman Yonela Tukwayo said the university was the greatest beneficiary of free higher education as the majority of the students fall under the R350000 household income bracket. The executive director of student affairs Zoleka Dotwana said although the university received an infrastructure grant from DHET, that grant was not enough to meet its infrastructure needs.
“We have been given land in by the Lukhanji Municipality to build a proper, functional campus. We are hoping that the Department of Higher Education can assist us with developing that land,” said Dotwana.
The objective of Manamela’s visit was to ensure all students who qualified for free higher education were registered for available spaces without charging them a registration fee. — arethal@dispatch.co.za
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