The South African Students Congress (SASCO) is lobbying for the increase of the houselhold income threshold specified by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), as well as for the increase of postgraduate funding.
The income threshold serves as a guide for applicants; students whose parents earn below this threshold may apply and qualify, whereas students whose parents earn above the threshold will most likely be rejected by the funding scheme.
However, students under the "missing middle" umbrella are also struggling to afford tertiary education fees, despite coming from households that earn more than the set out income threshold.
"Missing middle" refers to students who are currently "not poor enough" to qualify for NSFAS funding, but also cannot afford to pay the required fees to study further. Families that fall within the R350 000 to R600 000 household income per year bracket would fall under this category.
"Children of the working class who fall outside the current household income threshold of NSFAS, who we categorise as the missing middle are still deprived from accessing institutions of higher learning, albeit their parents are not able to afford. Those who have been able to tuck and squeeze themselves in the gates of these ivory towers, they are drowning in student debt, to the tune of R19 billion," reads a statement released by SASCO, reminding the African National Congress' previous announcement which promised free education for all.
SASCO is asking that the household income threshold enforced by NSFAS should be increased from R350 000 to R600 000. Increasing the threshold will go a long way in addressing the devastating plight of the missing middle students, who are mainly students of the working class.
In order to qualify for NSFAS, an applicants household income needs to be below R350 000 per year and, while this is great for the disadvantaged, the middle class is underserved by this system.
"Therefore, as the 55th Congress begins, we want to call on the ANC to be found true and committed in affirming its previous resolutions and prescripts as it pertains to delivering free education," continues SASCO.
The ANC must deliberate on a revised student funding model that will at least maintain the following principles, says the student organisation:
- The funding of NSFAS still largely relies on the taxation of the working class; SASCO is calling for a more comprehensive funding model which will see the biggest beneficiaries of Free Education become the biggest contributors – the corporate and private sector.
- Government must refrain from cutting postgraduate funding and instead increase it dramatically. "The ANC cannot build a developmental state that is characterised by innovative economic drivers outside scientific research and development, and this cannot happen outside aggressive investment into postgraduate funding."
- Any funding model that is used must not, in any way, restrain the children of the working class in "chains and bondages of debt".
- The ANC government must revisit the unchecked institutional autonomy of universities and colleges. "We’re [SASCO] calling for the ANC to take a more deliberate and aggressive approach in guiding the direction of Institutions of Higher Learning."
- The Department must consider the decentralisation of DHET offices across various provinces.
Earning university funding can be a complicated process, as students will have to meet and follow a strict criteria, which would require them to prove their financial need in order to be eligible for funding.
This process, however, often depends largely on a family's gross income and does not always consider factors that may complicate that income, which results in some students who are actually in need, not being considered for funding on that basis.
SASCO wishes to eliminate those issues in order for students (particularly missing middle students) to have accessibility to higher education.
