Cape Town – Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande says he will soon announce an Inter-Ministerial Task Team to look into accelerating the production of black academics.
The Minister said this is part of the department’s goals to accelerate the transformation of universities across the country. He was tabling the Higher Education and Training Budget Vote in Parliament, in Cape Town, on Thursday.
The Minister’s announcement comes after he announced the formation of two programmes aimed at accelerating transformation last year.
“The staffing of South Africa’s Universities Framework and its New Generation of Academics Programme (nGAP) have to date filled 102 posts with black South Africans, 55 of them women. A further 100 new nGAP academics will be appointed in the coming months. Although these numbers are good, they are not good enough.
“I will soon announce a task team to look into and propose solutions to the obstacles to the production of South African black academics,” he said.
The Minister said university transformation remains a critical task and that there is a need to intensify the struggle to build transformed and non-racial universities.
He said the Higher Education Bill, which is currently in Parliament, tasks university councils with driving transformation much more vigorously.
Department prioritises student accommodation
The Minister said he will launch the Student Housing Infrastructure Programme this year to address the challenges of student accommodation.
He said the department will outline its long term sustainable programme using funding models and innovative building technologies to provide secure and affordable residences when it convenes the Student Housing Symposium in June.
“In the meantime, we are working with the Minister of Public Works, Thulas Nxesi, to identify underutilised or unused government buildings suitable for conversion into affordable and comfortable student housing for both universities and TVET [technical and vocational education and training] colleges,” he said.
NSFAS increased by 47.3%
Minister Nzimande said, meanwhile, that R4.57 billion has been allocated to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme in 2016/17, which is made up of R2.54 billion to ensure that 71 753 students, who were not or insufficiently funded from 2013 to 2015, can pay their debts. R2.03 billion will be used to fund poor first time university entrants.
This is over and above R5.7 billion over 2016/17 to 2018/ 19 that has been reprioritised for universities to ensure that the fee freeze in 2016 does not lead to unmanageable fee increases in the future.
The Minister said R1.9 billion of the R2.3 billion shortfall emanating from the no-fee increase agreement had been provided.
He said the NSFAS allocations have resulted in a 47.3% increase in baseline funding for NSFAS in 2016.
“This, together with the other NSFAS funds, will this year put 205 000 [students] through universities and another 200 000 through TVET colleges. This is a total of 405 000 students receiving government support, a massive achievement by anybody’s standards,” he said.
He said the department also had a plan for the “missing middle” – students whose family income lies above the NSFAS threshold but who still can’t afford university.
“We aim to test our new model in 2017 and fully implement it in 2018,” he said. – SAnews.gov.za
