Despite ongoing controversy over South Africa’s troubled National Student Financial Aid Scheme’s (NSFAS) potentially tumultuous start to the 2024 academic year, the new head of the vice-chancellors’ body, Universities South Africa (USAf), Professor Francis Petersen, says he wants to work towards operational efficiencies, addressing leadership gaps in the sector and strengthening the higher education system.
The country’s Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) and the student funding or bursary scheme both face challenges that are impacting on education delivery.
Outlining his vision to raise the profile of USAf and gain public trust in making tertiary institutions stronger, Petersen, the vice-chancellor of the University of the Free State, told University World News that it is essential to understand the amount of funding NSFAS would require over the next five years to avoid the annual uncertainty resulting in a topsy-turvy start to the academic year, with recurring doubts over the ability of the student funding scheme to manage payments.
“We need to promote efficiencies of the higher education system,” he said.
Sector’s financial woes
With the tertiary education sector affected by subsidy cuts and science bodies such as the National Research Foundation also facing severe budget cuts, Petersen said the research enterprise is under pressure. Funding agencies will be affected, making it necessary to build strong relationships with the private sector to relieve some of the financial pressure institutions will face.
Petersen acknowledged that the issues facing NSFAS are of concern and added to the sector’s challenges in dealing with the repercussions of subsidy cuts.
In addition, the DHET has lost key staff members over the past three years, which has affected vital programmes. Petersen said staff had left the education ministry, affecting the time it took to receive approvals for new initiatives, the ability to motivate the national Treasury against budget cuts, and adding to the loss of institutional memory. This often meant that programmes had to start from scratch.
“Robust arguments from people who understand the system might not be always forthcoming. So, from a user perspective (and I’ve also reiterated this recently in a meeting with the minister), for the system in the sector to operate effectively and efficiently and for the public to have confidence in the sector, we must work together, understanding the capacity constraints, and using capacity in the overall system to help one another,” Petersen said.
Staff exodus a warning sign
Indeed, the capacity issues, the lack of continuity, and the skills gap have made an impact on how the sector has been functioning. Dr Whitfield Green, CEO of the Council on Higher Education (CHE), said a fully staffed and capacitated university education branch in the DHET is critical for the higher education system to function smoothly.
“The CHE is aware of the vacancies in the branch and the department’s efforts to fill the positions. The positions must be all filled as soon as possible. The CHE is not directly impacted. It is an independent organisation with independent processes and procedures. To date, it has received the usual communications and fund transfers,” Green said.
Between 2021 and 2023, several experienced individuals left the DHET. Many of their roles are now played by acting staff members.
The former chief of staff, Eudy Mabuza, who apparently had an acrimonious relationship with colleagues, was posted to Brussels in Belgium. Chief Financial Officer Pretty Makukule left to take up a similar role at SANParks. Sources say she had had enough.
Deputy Director General (DDG) Bheki Mahlobo (branch coordinator) took early retirement but stayed on for a while until he left for a consulting role in higher education.
Allegations of irregularities
DDG Lulama Mbobo (branch coordinator) took early retirement and joined the Eastern Cape Development Corporation. It is alleged that Advocate Mariana Erasmus (the director of contract management) was driven out because she was “too solid when it came to procurement”.
Thandi Lewin, respected former chief director of governance and institutional support who replaced former DDG Diane Parker as head of the higher education branch, was acting DDG when she left on early retirement. Lewin is at the University of Johannesburg, while Parker is a special adviser to the vice-chancellor at the University of Pretoria.
Long-serving Mahlubi Chief Mabizela, the former chief director responsible for the chief directorate of higher education policy and research support, joined USAf as a director in April 2023.
“If people are leaving close to retirement, it suggests that something is wrong, or that the situation is untenable,” said a staff member who did not wish to be named.
Ishmael Mnisi, the media liaison officer, jumped from the frying pan into the fire as the chief communicator at NSFAS, while Seema Ramnarain, chief director of communications, quit to join the Eskom Pension Fund.
While the department has remained below the radar despite its acting cast, NSFAS has been unable to keep out of the news.
NSFAS troubles still unresolved
As the new academic year looms, NSFAS still needs to complete a deadline that it set itself to pay outstanding allowances from last year to what it said was about 20,000 students.
According to the fund, only about 9,000 have been “successfully resolved” so far. On 23 January 2024, the Minister of Higher Education, Science, and Innovation, Dr Blade Nzimande, said on 21 January that NSFAS had received 1,545,822 applications for the 2024 academic year.
NSFAS has provisionally funded 657,703 applicants – with the deadline for additional applications for the 2024 application cycle being on 31 January 2024. The minister said NSFAS will process up to ZAR4.2 billion (about US$221 million) as an upfront payment to all institutions during the registration period.
Compounding the problems have been damaging allegations by the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA), a civil society body, which shared as evidence voice recordings of Ernest Khosa, NSFAS chairperson who subsequently took leave of absence, with representatives of NSFAS service providers. OUTA alleged payments reportedly include a donation of ZAR1 million to the South African Communist Party, which Nzimande chairs, from the husband of a company director.
Amid calls that Nzimande be axed, he denied the allegations and threatened to take legal action against OUTA. Following new claims at the weekend that a student accommodation crisis is brewing, the minister, according to OUTA, has not followed through with his threat.
Collaboration is critical
Petersen said that understanding what the system needs regarding enrolment plans over the next three to five years is critical. Effective operations and planning will be seamless only if aligned. He said this makes it imperative for USAf to partner with the national DHET and NSFAS to deal with the challenges besetting the sector collectively.
Tackling NSFAS operational efficiencies, funding universities and managing subsidy cuts to universities rank among the key USAf priorities, which he described as a first cluster of issues. “The fact that the DHET is experiencing capacity challenges, which has resulted in the loss of institutional memory, is a challenge. “USAf has offered to assist in the short-term by offering to second staff to strengthen the department,” he added.
The second priority relates to public trust, ensuring that USAf provides proactive leadership to the government and public, is more visible, and progressively tackles the issues. Public trust was crucial as what has been witnessed over the past three years concerning ongoing leadership challenges at institutions has not helped public confidence.
Strong leadership is vital
Petersen said the third priority area is around the leadership of universities, warning that the tertiary sector is facing a planning challenge at executive levels arising from vacancies and potential exits due to retirement at some institutions.
The University of Pretoria, the University of Cape Town and the University of the Western Cape are searching for new leadership. At the same time, Stellenbosch University’s vice-chancellor, Professor Wim de Villiers, is expected to retire in 2025.
“With change imminent, we have to ensure that we have a quality pipeline of DVCs [deputy vice-chancellors] and deans; leadership is important,” he said.
“I’m positive that, working together, we will be able to ensure that the new student funding doesn’t create further instability in the sector. And we need to get that sorted over the next couple of weeks before registrations begin in mid-February,” he said.
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