Over R4-billion for university fees

In a statement released by the minister he declares that the government’s contribution for the 0% fee increase for the 2016 academic year as a result of ‘FeesMustFall’ protests and the amount to cover fee increases of 8% for students from families with an income of up to R600 000 for the 2017 academic year has amounted to over R4-b.

He says that R2 460-b has been contributed to cover fee increases for students from families with an income of up to R600 000 for the 2017 academic year.

“These funds are not in the Department’s budget baseline but they have been reprioritised from the National Skills Fund (NSF),” he says.

Nzimande says that the upfront payments to universities amounting to R1 045-b will be transferred in three equal payments before 31 March 2017.

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“This amount is equal to 50% of the upfront payments that universities received in January 2016 for the 0% fee increase allocation.

“The balance of the allocation will be paid to universities once the process of identifying missing middle students has been finalised with universities.

“The transfer of the balance of the funding will only be done upon the receipt of the database of the poor and missing middle cohort (ID, name, student number, 2017 tuition fees, 2017 accommodation fees and fees adjustment) as agreed with the universities,” he says.

Nzimande says that the amounts indicated for each university for damages caused by protesting students and the 0% fee increase for 2016 have been transferred.

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“For the fee increases for students from a family with an income of up to R600 000 for the 2017 academic year, R352 652-m was released at the end of January 2017 and the other two equal tranches will be released at the end of February and March 2017.

“The balance of the allocation will be paid to universities once the process to identify missing middle students has been finalised,” he says.