Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande has hinted at possible cuts to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme after the austerity measures were implemented, but they are working with National Treasury to give them details which programmes will be affected by the cuts.
Nzimande said this has led to him delaying his letters to universities on how much exactly they will get next year.
He said while they were not certain which programmes will be affected by the budget cuts implemented by National Treasury, this could include NSFAS.
Nzimande said after the delivery of the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, they started working on this matter.
Plans are already afoot by universities to prepare for the enrolment and funding of students in the 2024 academic year.
When National Treasury announced the austerity measures, unions and other parties were up in arms that this would impact on service delivery.
Nzimande, who was briefing the National Assembly’s portfolio committee on higher education on Friday, said they were keeping an eye on the enrolment plans for universities next year.
“For our universities, as a department, we are currently monitoring the universities’ approval of enrolment plans, however,, awaiting National Treasury’s letter on budget cuts, which are likely to have further impact on enrolment and we hope not on NSFAS, but we can’t count that out. But we can’t rule that out with these budget cuts.
“We are still waiting to finalise matters in the wake of the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement, as Treasury is engaging various departments individually,” said Nzimande.
NSFAS receives about R48 billion a year to fund thousands of students.
Nzimande said they have started working on the start of the 2024 academic year.
However, he has not been able to confirm allocations to universities because of the budget cuts.
“We have done a lot of work to prepare for the start of the year, but we still need to meet with registrars (of universities) because I have yet to issue the annual Ministerial letter that I give to universities to say each university is going to get so much money.
“But I am unable to do that while we haven’t finalised the issue of the possible and nature and the extent of budget cuts for our departments with National Treasury,” said Nzimande.
They will need to finalise this process before he gets a sense of how much would be allocated to each university.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
Politics