Earlier this year, Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande revealed that approximately 482,244 students will enrol at TVET colleges in 2024. At least 210,000 students will enrol at university for the first time in 2024 with the available spaces at universities around 1.1 million spaces.
Even though more than one million students will further their education at a university in the 2024 academic year, 23 out of the county's 26 public universities received nearly 4.5 million applications for the 2024 placement.
This indicates that the demand for placement at the country’s universities exceeds available capacity.
Social justice activist Busi Seabe highlights the issue of limited access to higher education institutions, particularly universities, and the lack of space within these institutions. Despite the government's promise of free education and improvements since 1994, there hasn't been a significant expansion in higher education infrastructure.
The government does plan to establish two new universities which is expected to cost billions of rands. Feasibility studies for the establishment of the University of Science and Innovation in Ekurhuleni and the Crime Detection University in Hammanskraal have already been completed.
In 2020, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the establishment of the university in Ekurhuleni is critical as it is South Africa’s only metropolitan area that does not have a university. However, the construction and establishment of these universities will not be a silver bullet in solving the country’s university capacity challenges and it could be several years before they begin accepting applications.
Funding For Students
Many of the students enrolled in the Post School Education and Training (PSET) sector receive funding from the government. It was revealed that 70% of university students, and over 90% of TVET college students, benefitted from National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) bursaries.
NSFAS has anticipated that it will fund approximately one million students in 2024. However, budget cuts mean that fewer students are set to benefit from the comprehensive funding from NSFAS. The one million students set to be funded by NSFAS this year also falls short of the 2 million funding applications it received for 2024.
The launch of the Comprehensive Student Funding model earlier this year will come as a welcomed development for students who do not qualify for NSFAS bursaries.
Missing middle students refer to individuals with a household income that exceeds R350,000 per annum which automatically disqualifies them from receiving NSFAS bursaries. However, this group of students cannot afford all the costs associated with higher education.
The Comprehensive Student Funding model seeks to support this group of students through the provision of NSFAS student loans. It was revealed that approximately 31,000 students will benefit from these government-funded student loans in 2024.
The government has allocated an R3.8 billion initial capitalisation fund to support "missing middle" students.
Seabe acknowledges this funding as a positive step but emphasises that it may not be sufficient to meet the needs of all students.
I will say we appreciate the R3.8 billion that has been set aside... when you look at the current increases not only in fees but in accommodation and registration that 3.8 billion will go a long way in assisting students access higher education institutions
Seabe advocates for exploring alternative pathways to higher education beyond universities, such as TVET College colleges. They stress the importance of diversifying options to accommodate the growing number of students seeking further education.
What we have done unfortunately as the student movement is we have done an injustice to young people by perpetuating the need for them to only focus on institutions of Higher Learning like universities and neglecting technical colleges and other technical institutions of Higher Learning that they could have accessed and can access at the moment.
The government has set an ambitious target of 2.5 million enrolment in the TVET college sector. However, they acknowledged that this will require significantly higher levels of investment, new infrastructure, staff and student enrolments.
