Poor students will not benefit from free higher education, according to the Centre for Higher Education Transformation.
Advertisement
One possibility‚ he said‚ was a sliding scale of contributions‚ with the rich paying R150,000 a year and the poor paying R15,000.
“Whether he will raise fees, that is for him to decide and we can’t make that decision for him”, said Judge Jonathan Heher, chairperson of the commission of inquiry into higher education and training.
Dr Nico Cloete, who made a submission on the second day of the commission, said the students would not hesitate to hit the streets again.
“Minister Blade Nzimande on Thursday received the report of the Council on Higher Education on fees in 2017, and had hoped to make an announcement as early as today following consultation with a very wide range of stakeholders”.
“It is the middle class which go to the university‚” Cloete said.
Prof Cheryl de la Rey‚ the university’s vice-chancellor and principal‚ said in a sliding scale model tuition fee tiers were determined based on household income.
“The system is now skewed toward university education and will not serve correct”.
He said the students’ call for something to be done now was legitimate.
A 6% fee increase has been thrown around lately.
De la Rey said while there were South Africans who could not afford any level of tuition fees‚ for many others current tuition fee levels were lower than the fees paid to schools.
He said the problem was that the poor people do not qualify for higher education in large numbers.
Advertisement
The National Treasury will give its submission when the hearings continue in Vanderbijlpark, in the south of Johannesburg, on Friday.
