By: Dr Blade Nzimande, Minister of Higher Education and Training
The year 2024 is particularly special as it marks the 30th anniversary of our democracy and 12 years since the adoption of the National Development Plan (NDP). Since the dawn of democracy, the Department of Higher Education and Training has continued to expand access and improve the quality and size of our PSET system.
It therefore pleases me to state that our universities are poised to meet their NDP enrolment target of 1.6 million by 2030. We have implemented measures to massify our TVET college system towards the goal of 2.5 million enrolments in this sector.
Consistent with our commitment to transformation, we have increased the enrolments for both male and female students, and significantly increased the overall enrolment of black African students in our public universities.
We however remain cognisant of the need to still eradicate the race, class and gender inequalities that continue to characterise some aspects of our PSET system. From 2016 to 2023, we increased the proportion of students living with disabilities to about, 0,8 percent. With the assistance of our entity Higher Health, our universities have become increasingly efficient in managing the dropout rate of students by means of multiple psycho-social interventions.
Through NSFAS, we continue to support students from poor and working-class backgrounds, with over 70 percent of university students, and over 90 percent of TVET college students, benefiting from NSFAS bursaries.
We pride ourselves in the fact that, our spending on education as a proportion of overall government expenditure (22.7 % in 2019/20) and GDP (7.2 % in 2019/20) far exceeds the benchmarks set by UNESCO, which recommends allocating 15–20% of public spending to education and 4–6 % of GDP to education.
To increase access for poor and working-class students we will be building two new universities. The University of Science and Innovation in Ekurhuleni that will focus on training young people in high-impact and cutting-edge technological innovation.
The other will be the University for Crime and Policing Studies in Hammanskraal that will focus on producing highly skilled police officials for our country’s policing and criminal justice services. The technical planning for the building of these new universities is expected to be completed by this year.
All these are clear successes of the ANC government and a lasting legacy for future generations. However, to sustain these achievements and reach our 2030 enrolment targets, will require increased funding and investment in infrastructure.
To ensure a smooth start to the 2024 academic year, we have put in place a number of measures. We have activated our War Room and Observatory. The War Room enables us to have daily assessments of the situation in our institutions and to take immediate action, where required.
To support our institutions during the registration period, we have set up a Steering Committee, which comprises representatives of the DHET, universities, TVET colleges and student formations. I wish to encourage those students who have not yet secured a place to study, to sign up on our CACH service.
The CACH service can be accessed through the web address https://cach.cas.ac.za, until 31st of March 2024. We already have over 20 000 students who have registered on our CACH system.
For our TVET colleges, the 2024 headcount enrolment is 482 244 students in all programmes. The total of Ministerially funded programme enrolments for the academic year 2024 will be 407 762, of which 166 634 will be new students.
Our TVET college budget for 2024 has increased by 3-4%. One of our top priorities as government is providing financial support for needy students. In spite of its challenges, NSFAS funding has grown from disbursing R21.4 million in 1991 to almost 48 billion in 2023.
As of 21 January 2024, NSFAS had received 1,545,822 applications for the 2024 academic year. We expect this number to increase before the deadline of 31 January 2024. This year, NSFAS will process up to R4.2 billion as an upfront payment to all our universities and TVET colleges, to ensure that all NSFAS qualifying students are registered without having to pay registration fees.
R1billion will go to TVET colleges and R3.2billion to universities. NSFAS has provisionally funded 657,703 applicants who are SASSA recipients. In 2024, the TVET living allowance will increase from R6,000 to R10,000 per annum. As Minister, I remain deeply concerned about the outstanding 2023 disbursements. I have urged NSFAS to ensure that all outstanding disbursement are resolved as a matter of priority and call on all our institutions not to deny NSFAS funded students to register, because of outstanding payments.
All 2024 NSFAS applicants are required to submit a Consent form and make sure all the information submitted is accurate and truthful. To get more information or track their applications, students can visit the NSFAS website or sites as follows: WhatsApp 078 519 8006 or USSD *120*67327 Email: info@nsfas.org.za, Facebook: National Student Financial Aid Scheme and Twitter: @myNSFAS.
I recently announced the new Comprehensive Student Funding Model. This new funding scheme will provide financial support for the Missing Middle students, in the form of a loan.
This scheme aims to benefit students who come from families with a total income of more than R350 000, but not more than R600 000 per annum. Government has committed an initial R3.8 billion to support the loan scheme in 2024.
In due course, NSFAS will make a public announcement on the eligibility criteria and conditions for the scheme. Finally, as Minister, I remain steadfast in my commitment to ensuring clean governance at NSFAS. The NSFAS Board is implementing the recommendations of the Werksmans Attorneys and other measures, to ensure that the mandate of NSFAS is not compromised. I wish all our students a peaceful and productive academic year.
