{"id":78373,"date":"2016-09-19T18:47:38","date_gmt":"2016-09-19T16:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/university-fees-in-south-africa-many-questions-lots-of-anger-and-fires-to-fight-the-conversation\/"},"modified":"2016-09-19T18:47:38","modified_gmt":"2016-09-19T16:47:38","slug":"university-fees-in-south-africa-many-questions-lots-of-anger-and-fires-to-fight-the-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/university-fees-in-south-africa-many-questions-lots-of-anger-and-fires-to-fight-the-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"University fees in South Africa: many questions, lots of anger, and fires to fight | The Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"

University fees in South Africa: many questions, lots of anger, and fires to fight<\/a>: <\/p>\n

Protesting students have had enough and their anger is burning hot.<\/span> EPA\/Nic Bothma<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

South Africa\u2019s Minister of Higher Education and Training Dr Blade Nzimande has announced it is up to the country\u2019s universities to \u201cindividually\u2026determine the level of (fee) increase that their institutions require\u2026\u201d. But he cautioned that no university\u2019s fees should be raised by more than 8% for 2017. This follows a blanket freeze on fees in 2016 that left a number of universities on the verge of financial collapse. The Conversation Africa asked Professor Suellen Shay to unpack Nzimande\u2019s announcement.<\/em><\/p>\n

Is the minister\u2019s decision good news or bad for South Africa\u2019s universities?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Overall it\u2019s good news \u2013 or it should be. It\u2019s good news from universities’ point of view. The 8% figure comes from a recommendation by the Council on Higher Education. Now universities will have to make the final choice about their increases.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a pro-poor policy. The minister confirmed that students who benefit from the National Student Aid Financial Scheme (NSFAS) will not pay increased fees in 2017. The good news is that he added a second category of students who will not be required to pay increased fees next year: the missing middle. These are students whose parents earn too much money to qualify for loans from NSFAS but too little to actually afford university fees. Money will now be found to ensure that this group doesn\u2019t pay increased fees in 2017.<\/p>\n

I think it was a measured statement. The minister could have made a purely political announcement \u2013 one that would have been closer to the governing African National Congress\u2019s recent support for 0% increase for the second consecutive year.<\/p>\n

All of that said, the announcement hasn\u2019t been good news to a very significant proportion of the student population. Mass meetings were being held at various campuses after the minister\u2019s press conference so students could discuss their responses and plan their next moves. The University of Cape Town (UCT) suspended all academic activities in anticipation of the announcement.<\/p>\n

<\/blockquote>\n

What do you think students would have liked to hear from the minister?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t actually think it would have mattered what the minister said. There is such a groundswell of unhappiness among students. It started long before last year\u2019s #feesmustfall movement and goes back to the #Rhodesmustfall protests that saw a statue of Cecil John Rhodes removed from UCT\u2019s campus. There are all these issues, of inequality, of decolonisation.<\/p>\n

A significant proportion of the \u201cborn free\u201d generation \u2013 those who were born in or after 1994 \u2013 has had it. They\u2019re fed up on all fronts. The state, university management. We\u2019ve left too many things for too long. It\u2019s viewed as us doing too little, too late. Now we have a crisis.<\/p>\n

The focus in the next few days will be less on making fee-related decisions or discussing the minister\u2019s announcement. Universities will be focusing on security, on keeping campuses open or shutting them down amid safety concerns. There\u2019s no head space to tackle students’ underlying deep seated anger and frustration. We\u2019ll be trying to figure out the cost of security per day instead of having bigger discussions.<\/p>\n

<\/blockquote>\n

What will it take to create the space for those discussions and for taking decisions?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019re in a very tough space to be finding an action plan.<\/p>\n

If you go back to the beginning of 2015 when students first started protesting, there was an opportunity to stand back and ask big questions; to set up ideological discussions. Now we\u2019re fighting fires around a group of students who are saying<\/p>\n

\n

You wouldn\u2019t talk or listen to us a year ago, so now we\u2019re not interested.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We need a wider conversation so that we can find each other. At UCT, for instance, there\u2019s been a call for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission mediated by people from outside the institution, giving students a chance to air their grievances and share their experiences.<\/p>\n

University councils will now have to figure out how high or low they set their fee increases. When do you think that will start happening?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Never mind deciding what we do with the money: the questions right now are, \u2018Are we open or closed tomorrow? How do we ensure everyone\u2019s safety if we reopen or remain open? Should we be closing with exams coming up?\u2019<\/p>\n

I think what we\u2019ll see is local issues \u2013 those unique to individual universities \u2013 connecting with the national issue of funding. Those will all feed into a bigger channel. What that looks like, we don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

Suellen Shay does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Source:<\/strong> The Conversation \u2013 Articles (AFRICA)<\/a><\/small>
\n<\/p>\n

Read more on The Conversation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Join the fun:<\/strong> Add Your event<\/a> | Submit a Press Release<\/a> | Add your listing<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

University fees in South Africa: many questions, lots of anger, and fires to fight: Protesting students have had enough and their anger is burning hot. EPA\/Nic Bothma South Africa\u2019s Minister of Higher Education and Training Dr Blade Nzimande has announced it is up to the country\u2019s universities to \u201cindividually\u2026determine the level of (fee) increase that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[428,6115,8890,4958,2323,5600,13108,4417,4004,3576,1032],"class_list":{"0":"post-78373","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-africa-news-2","7":"tag-africa","8":"tag-anger","9":"tag-conversation","10":"tag-fees","11":"tag-fight","12":"tag-fires","13":"tag-lots","14":"tag-many","15":"tag-questions","16":"tag-south","17":"tag-university","18":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78373\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}