Students who are beneficiaries of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) bursary have been having several issues when it comes to their university experiences, with complaints being made each year.
This year, student protests erupted at various institutions across the country, in response to the ongoing difficulties students have been enduring throughout their studies.
What began at the University of Cape Town (UCT) has now spread to other institutions across the country, including the University of the Western Cape (UWC), North West University (NWU), the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) and now Wits University.
The protests have all been similarly related, in regards to financial blocks/exclusions preventing some students from registering for the academic year or from receiving their results, as well as the increase in tuition fees, accommodation struggles and issues related to the NSFAS.
Struggles and frustrations with university admin is a yearly occurrence for students, and the South African Union of Students (SAUS) feels that these hassles are created purposefully.
A statement from SAUS read:
The Union is of the view that these challenges which have precipitated towards the crisis we are enduring, are almost deliberately orchestrated by university management and the Department of Higher Education.
SAUS feels that the issues brought forward by the Student Representation Councils' (SRCs) of the various institutions across the country and the protests that have been spurred by these ongoing issues, have been present for some time now, "and are in fact issues which had been dealt with in principle."
"We [SAUS] met with the Department of Higher Education, NSFAS and various other stakeholders regarding the plights and challenges of students, well prior to any protest actions, [so] as to identify the possible challenges we might face, and we agreed on the necessary solutions and approaches to these challenges; however almost all these stakeholders have failed to uphold the agreements," said the student union.
NSFAS recently introduced an accommodation cap of R 45 000, which has been a considerable factor leading up to the protests as a result of the suspicious increase of private student accommodation rent prices, which has caught the attention of the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) and the Minister of Higher Education, Blade Nzimande.
The NSFAS bursary scheme provides NSFAS allowances to beneficiaries, covering tuition fees and other university and college related costs, one of which is an allowance for accommodation.
Many students rely on student accommodation for a place to live while they work towards obtaining a tertiary education qualification, but recently, a number of complaints have been raised, alleging that pricing of private student accommodation is going beyond the stipulated amount, thus becoming too expensive for students to afford.
Student accommodation prices are said to be raised to “astronomical levels”, surpassing the R4 500 per month threshold stipulated by NSFAS, allegedly having the worst effect on students at the University of Pretoria (UP), Wits University, Stellenbosch University, and UCT.
It is expected that the money NSFAS beneficiaries receive for accommodation costs would be enough to cover the price of rent, but as of late, students residing at private accommodation facilities have been finding it particularly challenging to afford their rent, due to alleged unauthorised price hikes made by private accommodation providers and university officials.
As a result, many students have been “left without accommodation...because they could not afford the new rent amounts”, with some students becoming "stranded and homeless".
Nzimande, the DHET, Universities South Africa (USAf), and Vice Chancellors of institutions will be meeting soon to "look at cases and practical solutions" for those students affected by the accommodation cap.
In doing so, we must take [into] account a number of contradictory facts affecting the implementation of the R45 000 cap, inter alia, evidence of price collusion by landlords to profiteering, the realities of differentiated costs of living in various localities where NSFAS students have to find accommodation, and the continued existence of unaccredited accommodation establishments that imperil the affordability and safety of student accommodation.
According to SAUS, the bursary scheme, along with the Department, and in consultation with the Union, had agreed to peg the price the State pays on student accommodation, at R45 000 per annum.
The goal of safe, secure and conducive student accommodation could be reached with the accommodation cap, said SAUS at the time of discusson, but the Union is now condemning the results of that cap, due to the alleged collusion of unauthorised accommodation price hikes.
"We however now note the collusion of university officials and private student accommodation service providers to ridiculously inflate student accommodation prices to even R90 000 p.a for NSFAS beneficiaries. This we must condemn in the strongest possible terms.
One of our revolutionary mandates is to broaden access to institutions of higher learning, and paying ridiculous and exorbitant accommodation prices to ruthless parasites who seek enrichment from a government social programme is unacceptable.
In addition, "To the extent to which some of our students have fallen victims to the exploitation and extortion by universities and accommodation service providers, the meeting agreed that NSFAS will as of the 7th of March finalise rapid interventions to ensure that no student is left without accommodation," concluded SAUS.
The student union has called on the Department and NSFAS to urgently engage with tertiary institutions, so that when all is said and done, "not one NSFAS student should sleep outside; they must, for the millions we pay them annually for their salaries, derive an expedited and workable solution."
SRCs have been negotiating and working to resolve the current issues they're experiencing with their respective universities in regards to the ongoing protests, alongside the DHET who has also stepped in.
The current protests at various tertiary institutions are reminiscent of the Fees Must Fall protests of 2015, which was a student-led movement, demanding that increases in student fees must be stopped, as well as to increase government funding of universities.
