News > Free university education plan gets a 'Z' from expert

Free university education plan gets a 'Z' from expert

2017/11/13 09:24:46 AM

SOUTH AFRICA

TimesLIVE

10 November 2017 University World News Global Edition Issue 482

A leading educationalist has said that if President Jacob Zuma moved ahead with an alleged plan to announce free education across the board through a controversial funding scheme, it would spell disaster for the country, writes Ranjeni Munusamy, Qaanitah Hunter, Sabelo Skiti and Ernest Mabuza for TimesLIVE.

TimesLIVE exclusively revealed that the plan, apparently devised by Zuma's future son-in-law, Morris Masutha, and which would also fly in the face of official African National Congress policy, could see the cutting back of departmental budgets across the government to make R40 billion (US$2.8 billion) available for the 2018 academic year. Zuma has been withholding the 748-page Heher Commission report, in which retired judge Jonathan Heher reportedly found universal free tertiary education was not feasible.

Leading educationalist Jonathan Jansen said, for universities, fees were a recurrent cost that had to be paid from government coffers. "There are over one million people every year and growing who will expect free education as a right. We don't have money for this recurring expenditure." Jansen also said submissions made to the Heher Commission showed that fee-free higher education was not attainable at present.
Full report on the TimesLIVE site