It's that time of year again when learners make the final decision about where they'll be studying for higher education, if they wish to do so.
Of South Africa's 26 public universities and 50 Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Colleges. However, it has been revealed that most students are gravitating towards choosing a university over a college, and TVET Colleges aren't keeping up with enrolment targets in comparison with universities.
A recent Parliamentary Committee Meeting looks at what the reasons behind this problem could be.
According to the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), the lockdown regulations of 2020/2021 hindered enrolment in TVET Colleges, and only 21% of the target group that managed to enroll themselves have graduated with their N6 qualifications.
"There were notable challenges experienced due to underfunding, mode of learning, and adjusting to COVID-19 requirements in the previous years," reads the Parliamentary Committee Meeting notes.
The TVET College branch has also been recognised as not being adequately funded, and therefore, students could not be encouraged to choose colleges over universities while they remain unfunded.
Another reason why the enrolment targets set for TVET Colleges were not met is because TVET qualifications don't appear as attractive to students, because the completion rate at N6 is very low. Students are more inclined to attend university, thinking those qualifications offer better job prospects than TVET college qualifications.
This is aggravated by the poor performance of TVET colleges in general due to lack of standardisation and fragmentation at play.
A new policy is in the works to differently classify higher learning institutions in South Africa into three types, namely: universities, university colleges and higher education colleges.
The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has also joined in the conversation, stating that their issue lies with accurately projecting the cost of providing funds to students enrolled in technical colleges. During the meeting, it was expressed that there is "a need for proper demand-led planning to enable the accurate projection of costs for TVET Colleges."
In terms of the budget projections for the 2023 academic year for universities, NSFAS will require R3.5 billion to cover the beginning-of-year allowances for three months (February to April 2023); this includes allowances for medical students that should be paid in January.
For TVET Colleges, spending projections include tuition and allowances, as well as colleges requiring upfront tuition for cash flow purposes at the beginning of the year. The amount required in December for TVETs is R1.9 billion and R 5,445,709,305 is required by December 2022/January 2023 (at least), to enable the disbursement to be in affect by the start of the academic year.
The TVET sector is, in general, constrained due to the following:
- Colleges largely provide for students from families with poor backgrounds
- The infrastructure grant is tied up in the Department
- There is an increased demand for access in the TVET sector, which is not reciprocated by increased funding
- There is a lack of an appropriate funding framework for TVET colleges
NSFAS has identified other funder resources that can be utilised and reimbursed at a later stage.
