Government will boost spending on universities by 25% over the next three fiscal years to clear accumulated student debt and keep tuition fees at 2015 levels.
An extra R16.3 billion in expenditure accounts for more than half of the R31.8 billion of new allocations in the 2016-17 budget, that Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan presented to lawmakers in Cape Town on Wednesday.
Proposed tuition-fee increases of as high as 10% sparked a series of student demonstrations last year, including a march to the government’s headquarters in Pretoria that ended in violent clashes between protesters and police. President Jacob Zuma met with student leaders and agreed to freeze fees.
About half the money will be used to support current students to complete their studies, while the rest will used to help compensate universities for the lower fees, and to clear existing student debt, Gordhan said in his budget.
The government appointed a team to investigate university- funding options, the Treasury said. In addition, a presidential commission is investigating the feasibility of free higher education and will report its findings this year.
- Bloomberg
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