Experts optimistic about student loan for ‘missing middle’

Experts believe the “missing middle” loan announced by higher education minister Blade Nzimande will help students and parents who do not qualify for the National Student Financial Aid Scheme.

Nzimande announced on Sunday that at least half of the students in the estimated 68,500 missing middle category would be funded by the government through a new comprehensive funding model.

He said the government had set aside a R3.8bn initial capitalisation fund to support the missing middle students, with R1.5bn coming from the National Skills Fund and R2.3bn from Sector Education and Training Authorities (Setas).

This would be enough to fund 47% of the missing middle students, or 31,884 of the estimated 68,446 total.

Nelson Mandela University deputy vice-chancellor of teaching and learning, Dr Muki Moeng, said the funding was a good idea.

Moeng, however, cautioned that there was a need to also think about the economy when implementing the model and sustaining the funding.

“It is a good idea if repayment of the fund will be like the Tertiary Education Fund of SA while we were students.

“We were forced to pay back as soon as we were employed,” she said.

She hoped there would be a system to monitor and enforce this.

“It will alleviate strain on parents.

“However, we need to make sure loans are repaid so we can give more loans to others.

“It will be sad if we say we are going to implement this and then find it difficult to recoup the loans,” she said.

The missing middle is defined as students who do not qualify for funding because their household income is above the R350,000 a year threshold, but for whom tertiary education remains unaffordable because their annual household income is less than R600,000.

Stellenbosch University vice-dean for teaching and learning, Prof Michael le Cordeur, said “this has been a major problem for some time and is long overdue”.

Other criteria for students wanting to apply for a loan included:

● TVET and public university students;

● Undergraduate or postgraduate students;

● 70% of applicants will be taken from Stem programmes (science, technology, engineering and maths).

Students who need loans for ongoing studies must attain an average of 60% or higher.

Their loan will cover tuition, learning material and accommodation, and those who complete their qualification in the prescribed time and obtain an average of 70% or higher will have 50% of their loan converted to a bursary on request.

Le Cordeur said most students would be taken from the Stem programmes, which would help lower the high unemployment rate among youth.—