Varsities fight to remain solvent
WORRIED: Aphelele Ngxukume UNIVERSITIES are pulling out all the stops to avoid going into the red next year.
University of Witwatersrand vice-chancellor Adam Habib has initiated discussions with major banks to find solutions for middle-income students who do not qualify for state assistance.
University of Cape Town vicechancellor Max Price has also approached major banks and the corporate sector, and NorthWest University is cutting down on bonuses and temporary staff, while introducing more short courses and distance learning to help keep money rolling in.
“High-profile investor events have been held in New York and in London this year,” said Wits director for development and fundraising Peter Bezuidenhoudt. “Wits now has a full-time fundraiser in the US and a parttime office in the UK.”
He said that although donations from the private sector had contributed only a small portion of the nearly R4-billion the university received this year, donations and especially funding from the private sector had changed in that businesses were increasingly specific about the degrees they wanted to fund.
“A company would come to us and say they need five civil engineers, or five mechanical engineers, for example, and make those bursaries available.”
The university’s “student resource pipeline” initiative made it easier for companies to target specific needs.
Wits spokeswoman Shirona Patel said Habib had also established a task team to determine how the university could cut R150-million from its budget, mostly to fund insourcing of staff, which was one of the demands of protesters.
UCT spokesman Elijah Moholola TAKING UP CUDGELS: A poster at the EFF protest in Pretoria this week said: “The vice-chancellor has written to all the major chief executives, explaining the dire funding situation in higher education and inviting them to assist.
“Efforts are ongoing and Absa recently confirmed a donation of R10-million. We hope other banks will match or better Absa’s contribution. Old Mutual also made a donation of R2million towards the student representative council’s #FundingFutures campaign earlier this year,” he said.
NWU spokesman Willie du Plessis said that despite also hoping for donations and money to be raised through various fundraising initiatives, the university planned to save money by “cutting down on staff costs”, including bonuses and temporary staff, and expanding strategic projects such as short courses and distance learning programmes.
“It takes time to get these initiatives going and therefore investing is necessary before income can be generated,” Du Plessis said.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said in his medium-term budget policy statement last month that universities and students will receive an additional R17-billion over the term — R9billion for the National Student Financial Aid Scheme over the period ahead and more than R8billion to meet the cost of fee increases for students from households with incomes of less than R600 000. Universities South Africa CEO Ahmed Bawa said: “Clearly it is easier for some institutions to [find additional funding] than for others.
“Wits is in the middle of Johannesburg, it is close to the industrial hub. Another thing is that so many people in industry graduated from Wits, so there’s that connection too.
“The idea is that this might take off some of the pressure on the ‘missing middle’ next year,” he said.
“These kind of donations are a very small part, but every million you can raise in this way helps enormously.”
It’s disappointing that I may not make it to university. I would be the first one in my family Absa donated R10-million. We hope other banks will match or better that amount