More than 300 students who have successfully completed their degrees have been unable to graduate, as universities have withheld their certificates over unpaid fees and other issues.
This was according to Higher Education Minister Nobuhle Nkabane in response to parliamentary questions by MK Party MP Mnqobi Prince Msezane who asked about the number of qualified students whose graduation certificates were withheld due to outstanding fees.
"The recent audited data indicates that there are 320 students who have fulfilled requirements for their qualification, but respective universities have deferred awarding the qualification for several admin reasons. These reasons are mainly financial and disciplinary hearings,” Nkabane said.
Msezane also questioned why her department had not prioritised clearing the debt to promote fair access to the job market and remove barriers for affected students, noting that historical debt disproportionately impacted disadvantaged and marginalised youth.
Nkabane said former minister Blade Nzimande had in January 2016 indicated that the department would make funds available to pay off the historical debt of students who were eligible for the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).
“This intervention was applied to students who had been ‘unfunded or underfunded’ while studying between 2013 and 2015 when the bursary scheme was in the form of a loan. The minister subsequently confirmed that there will be no fee increases in 2016.”
The minister explained that the historic claims from the close-out years were settled to the extent that they fell within the annual cap.
According to Nkabane, an agreement was reached between the department and all 26 public higher education institutions to allow universities to provide students with letters of completion or academic records to help them seek employment or further their studies. However, not all institutions fully complied.
“Some universities have, however, followed routes they believe will protect their sustainability. The department plans to engage universities further on solutions to addressing student debt as part of its intentions to consult more widely on phase two of the comprehensive student funding model,” she said.
Meanwhile, a total of R70.2 billion in NSFAS funding was disbursed to over 3.1 million students between 2009 and 2018, the minister said.
She was responding to a set of separate questions from Rise Mzansi’s Makashule Gana, who asked about the total NSFAS funding, the number of beneficiaries, and how many students had graduated or completed their studies.
Nkabane said NSFAS currently does not have a system in place to track and record the number of NSFAS beneficiaries who graduated or completed their studies.
She added that NSFAS had also not been informed if beneficiaries were working or not.
According to the minister R27 billion was owed for the period between 2010 and 2017.
She said the data did not include repayments made by beneficiaries and funders who have paid money to clear some of the debt.
“In the past NSFAS received information on a debtor’s employment status via Sars. NSFAS would send a request for debtor to Sars so that Sars can inform NSFAS of the employment status, thus who to target for collections, however over the past two years NSFAS has not been able to receive data from Sars.”
Nkabane added that another way of acquiring the information was using the services of external debt collectors.
“External debt collectors use tracking tools that inform of debtors' employment statuses.
“The NSFAS has five external debt collectors that were provided with some of the debtors’ data to collect from debtors and one service provider working only on state deductions or Persal.”
Cape Times