Loans clearly fairer

Neva Makgetla is correct (Uneven varsity access recreates privilege, January 31) but only if access to university depends on a student’s income. The obvious remedy is to break the link between income and access. The best policy is for a properly capitalised National Student Financial Aid Scheme to make long-term, fullcost loans to academically qualified students on a means-tested basis. What could be simpler? This policy is far superior to the relatively complicated Sizwe Nxasana proposals.

Makgetla points to an “extraordinary increase in the fees per student over the past 20 years”, but fails to offer any explanation. A national inquiry into these costs is long overdue. She also refers to debt burdens. Student debt is not a burden if loans can be repaid after graduation on a long-term basis out of the extra income that, as Makgetla is well aware, graduates typically earn (that’s why they go to university). Her article shows that expecting students to finance their qualifications through equity can reproduce “privilege across generations”. Loans avoid this and are clearly fairer. A major fault in the fees debate is that it fails to recognise that there are other claims on taxpayer funds. Makgetla should acknowledge that the really big losers from a policy of “free-to-students” fees would include the poor, whose miserable social grants are a travesty.

Dr Doug Blackmur

West Beach