R150m provided so far for province’s students

WHILE the government has yet to announce exactly how much will be made available for free education this year, three Eastern Cape universities have confirmed receiving close to R150-million to assist students who qualify for free education.

Walter Sisulu University received the lion’s share of the Eastern Cape-allocated money, R91-million, the University of Fort Hare (UFH) received R45-million, Rhodes University confirmed receiving R9-million, while Nelson Mandela University (NMU) failed to provide the amount allocated to it.

The allocation was part of the R1.5-billion the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) paid to universities across the country to cover registration fees, books and other essentials.

Although the NSFAS said it was unable to confirm how much each university would get to fund free education this year, in a press release issued earlier this month, spokesman Kagisho Mamabolo said the upfront payment amounted to at least 13% of the provisional allocation for the year that each institution received from the NSFAS.

More than 60 000 students from the province have applied for free education. Of the new applications, 15 072 are from WSU, 8 844 from NMU, 4 308 from UFH and 1 448 from Rhodes.

A total of 33 276 new applications were received from students from TVET colleges through out the province.

The NSFAS is now in the process of communicating the outcome of the applications to students.

WSU spokeswoman Yonela Tukwayo said based on last year’s student profiles and previous funding, the university expected R900-million from the NSFAS to fund students this year.