We need a tertiary education funding system that will help get students into courses with employment opportunities at the end of them.
www.shutterstock.com
Alternative scenarios for tertiary funding in South Africa are set out in a completely separate report from the Davis Tax Committee drawing from work done by the higher education department.
Even with higher fees, higher education will still be worthwhile for most young people.
Shutterstock
Earnings data suggest higher education remains financially attractive for most students, and the small proposed fee increases should not materially affect that.
Not everyone is in a position to start university straight away.
from shutterstock.com
The ministerial task team’s report presents a jaundiced view of an important organisation that’s opened the doors of higher education to many who would otherwise have been closed out.
Universities are in the grip of a torrid period of change and disquiet.
Kim Ludbrook/EPA
Pension fund managers must consider environmental, social and governance issues when making investment decisions. The student funding crisis is a perfect example of a social issue.
There has been a great deal of research, planning and talking to come up with solutions to South Africa’s higher education funding crisis. Some of these plans must now be put into action.
The student movement in South Africa prides itself on being “leaderless”.
Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters
Student protesters have demonstrated good leadership in some spheres but come up short in other areas. This suggests that universities ought to focus more on how they teach leadership.
The costs of student protests are far higher than imagined.
Rogan Ward/Reuters
There is a very real risk that South Africa’s major research projects will stumble and the whole research machine will be shut down by ongoing student protests.
A student tries to stem her bleeding during clashes at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters
Protest movements become radicalised by two factors: escalating policing and competitive escalation between political adversaries and other protesting groups.
“Free” education is not fair or sustainable.
Reuters/Mark Hutchings
Higher education is a resource intensive enterprise. It cannot effectively function without a massive injection of resources in a sustained and escalated manner.
Chinese graduates celebrate. A university degree is a passport to a better life
Wu Hong/EPA
There is no such thing as ‘free higher education’. Someone has to pay. And the reality is that low, or no tuition fees benefit middle and high-income families.
University students are fed up that their calls for free education are being ignored.
Nic Bothma/EPA
South Africa’s higher education minister has dealt with fee increments for 2017 but sidestepped students’ fundamental issue: an ongoing call to make higher education free for all.
South Africa needs some universities that focus on teaching, and others that concentrate on research.
Shutterstock
South Africa must examine how science funding is allocated to universities. It also needs to acknowledge that not all universities should be focusing on research and development.
Students pay between $6,256 and $10,440 for a university degree, depending on which course they choose to study.
from www.shutterstock.com
After almost a decade of failed processes to reform the current funding system, the government must produce a revised system that improves the quality of outcomes for students in all courses.
Is it fair that students pay different amounts for university courses?
.SilentMode/flickr
Andrew Norton, Grattan Institute and Conor King, La Trobe University
Students currently pay higher fees for courses that lead to jobs with typically higher wages. But not all students find, or want, a job in their area of study. Should all students then pay the same amount for their university degree?
Students have been emboldened and won’t give up their demand for free education.
Nic Bothma/EPA
Chief Director: Tshwane University of Technology – Institute for Economic Research on Innovation; Node Head: DST/NRF SciSTIP CoE; and Professor Extraordinary: Stellenbosch University – Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology., Tshwane University of Technology
Director of Centre for Postgraduate Studies, Rhodes University & Visiting Research Professor in Center for International Higher Education, Boston College, Rhodes University