Fees Must Fall a decade on: Funding crisis still plagues higher education - students

With South Africa marking 10 years since the Fees Must Fall protests shook the country, some students on Thursday said the funding crisis still clouds the state of higher education.

It’s been a decade since students from institutions around the country occupied the Union Lawns in Pretoria in anticipation of former President Jacob Zuma's free education announcement.

While Zuma did not address the crowd as planned on this day 10 years ago, he did announce a 0% increase for tuition fees.

In October 2015, students across the country took to the streets and ultimately gathered at the Union Buildings to demand free higher education.

But the government would only announce that it would subsidise education for poor and working-class students in October 2018.

THE STATE OF STUDENT FUNDING

Fort Hare University has about 90% of its students funded by the government.

Former SRC President Aphelele Matinise said free education remains a concept on paper.

"I know they always refer to this thing of NSFAS [National Student Financial Aid Scheme] being a bursary when they talk about free education, but in reality, even with that NSFAS, remember we have missing middle students."

VICTORIES AND THE WAY FORWARD

But one of the students who led the Fees Must Fall movement a decade ago at the University of Pretoria, Amla Monageng, said many victories came out of the protests.

"Some of the things that were encapsulated within the Fees Must Fall movement was the insourcing of workers, the individual transformation agendas within the institutions, and we were able to attain certain victories within the University of Pretoria, for instance, the language policy."

Monageng said the baton has been passed to the current students to advance the cause.