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Govt to inject capital into academic staff shortages – but what about the NSFAS?

Minister of higher education, Blade Nzimande, announced recently that R169 million would be set aside to address academic staff shortages. This is all fine and well, but what about putting aside money to inject into the National Students Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) so that more students can actually have access to tertiary education?

Minister Nzimande was presenting the opening address at the 7th SA Technology Network in Durban, during which he made the announcement of the department's cash injection. He was quoted as saying, in an article on Moneyweb: "The average age of academics at South African universities is about 55 years, which means if we don't do something drastic the implications are that we will run short of academics. In some respects we are experiencing that already."

This is a very noble sentiment to espouse. However, what good will having increased numbers of academics do if there are no students available to attend class because they don't have sufficient funding? Or, worse still, if the currently enrolled students don't attend classes because they are out on strike in solidarity with their colleagues who've been denied access to tertiary education because of a lack of funding from the NSFAS?

To read other reports about the student strikes, which happened in tertiary institutions across South Africa towards the beginning of the year, follow this link.

Lia Marus is the editor of HR Pulse. She has a BA in French, Italian and Linguistics from UCT, an MA in translation from Wits and a Postgraduate Diploma in Management from the Wits Business School. She is currently studying towards her LLB through Unisa. Lia started her career off in corporate communications, where she worked as a sub-editor, researcher and marketing coordinator. She then heeded the call of the publishing world and went into the business-to-business publishing field. She worked as a sub-editor as well as a chief sub-editor. Before joining ITWeb, she managed an HR guidebook at a leading international publishing company.