Rhodes feeling the pinch of low funds

RHODES University is a going concern which is not about to close down, says vice-chancellor Dr Sizwe Mabizela.

In a letter to alumni responding to recent reports that the university faced a financial crisis, Mabizela said the strain the university faced was not unique and was being experienced by most public universities.

“Given its smallness, Rhodes University is particularly vulnerable and sensitive to changes in its funding streams that are a result of a fiscally strained national environment in which we find ourselves.”

He painted a bleak economic context within which universities had to function.

The official unemployment rate stood at 26.7%, economic growth rate was just 0.2% and some 16.9 million South Africans received and relied on a state grant.

South Africa also boasted the most unequal society in the world.

Universities were chronically underfunded. The government subsidy had dropped from 50% in 1994 to 40% in 2014, while the student proportion of higher education funding grew from 20% in 1994 to 31% in 2014.

“This decline in state subsidy has forced universities to increase the student fee income to maintain the quality of the educational experience of students,” Mabizela said.

While higher education enrolment had doubled from about 500 000 in 1994 to about one million in 2016, the number of feepaying students – as a proportion of the entire public higher education enrolment – had dropped significantly.

Some 405 000 students were funded by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), but the level and extent of this remained inadequate.

The demand for NSFAS funding far outstripped available resources.

The government had placed a moratorium on fee increases for 2016 and had provided just R1.9billion towards the resulting R2.3-billion shortfall. “All public universities are experiencing considerable financial hardships. Some have embarked on austerity measures and others have offered their staff voluntary severance packages.”

Mabizela said to assist students Rhodes had done away with its 50% minimum initial payment and replaced it with a 10% registration fee.