94% of SPU students rely on grants

OF THE 703 students enrolled at Kimberley’s Sol Plaatje University, a total of 94 percent rely on grants to cover their tuition fees, while only four percent pay their own fees.

This is according to a report on the Financial Statistics for Higher Education Institutions for 2016, released this week by Dr Paul Lehohla, Statistician-General for Statistics South Africa.

According to the report, the university, the only one in the Province and the smallest nationally, shared 703 of the country’s total number of 975 837 enrolled university students last year.

The highest number of students were studying through Unisa with a total of 299 324, although this dropped from 2015 when the distance-learning facility had 337 944 enrolled students.

North West University had the second highest with 69 395 students, followed by Tshwane (58 901), Pretoria (53 232), Johannesburg (51 795), KwaZulu Natal (46 472), Wits (37 448), Free State (34 455), Cape Peninsula (34 455), Stellenbosch (30 161), Cape Town (29 232), Walter Sisulu (28 581), Durban (28 377), Nelson Mandela (27 780), Western Cape (21 796), Limpopo (19 843), Vaal (19 241), Zululand (15 708), Central (15 237), Fort Hare (13 831), Mangosuthu (11 588), Rhodes (8 136), Sefako Makgatho (5 402), Mpumalanga (1 268) and Sol Plaatje (703).

According to the report, Sol Plaatje received 94 percent (a total of R741 million) of its revenue for 2016 from grants and four percent (a total of R33 million) from tuition fees. The remaining two percent (R13 million) was received from other.

Nationally, the total revenue of South African universities, namely 67.4 billion, was made up of 32.1 percent from tuition fees, 44.6 percent from grants and 23.3 percent from other.

The overall revenue increased by 11 percent from 2015 and the percentage of grants received increased from 41.1 percent to 44.6 percent.

While SPU is the smallest university in South Africa, it receives more from national government in the form of grants than several other universities, including Fort Hare, Limpopo, Vaal, Rhodes, Zululand, Sefako Makgatho, Venda, Central and Mangosuthu.

The biggest slice of the R30 billion given by national government to universities in the form of grants, went to Unisa (R2.76 billion), Pretoria (R2.2 billion) and KwaZulu-Natal (R2 billion).

In terms of expenses, Sol Plaatje University spent R68 million (43 percent of its expenses budget) on the compensation of its employees, and R88 million (56 percent) on goods and services. The remaining one percent (R2 million) went to other expenses.

In comparison, universities nationally spent 57.2 percent of their expenses budget on employees’ compensation, 36.6 percent on goods and services, 5.5 percent on other expenses and 0.7 percent on interest.

The total expenses bill was R59 billion, up from R53.6 billion in 2015.

The capital budget of Kimberley’s higher education institution was the fifth highest last year at R372 million. The highest was Pretoria (R645 million), followed by Stellenbosch (R614 million), Wits (R570 million), and Mpumalanga (R380 million).

In total, higher education institutions spent R6.2 billion on capital expenditure in 2016.

The unemployment rate by education status is 33.1 percent for those who have less than matric, 27.9 percent for matriculants, 7.4 percent for graduates and 17 percent for those with other tertiary qualifications.