SOUTH AFRICA: One step closer to free universities

Free education for poor university students moved sharply up the South African government's priorities last week with the announcement of a ministerial committee to advise Minister of Higher Education and Training Blade Nzimande on how to provide it, writes Cornia Pretorius for the Mail & Guardian.

Chaired by Marcus Balintulo, vice-chancellor of Walter Sisulu University for Technology and Science, the committee's "most important task ...is to provide recommendations that would give effect to government's commitment to progressively introduce free education for the poor up to undergraduate level", Nzimande said in a budget speech.

Providing free higher education for poor students was one of the ruling African National Congress' 2007 general congress resolutions. The government's R2-billion bursary and loan scheme for poor students, the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, has been repeatedly criticised for the inadequacy of the amounts it provides and for not disbursing all the funds at its disposal.
Full report on the Mail & Guardian site