Students with historical debt will be allowed to register: Nzimande
Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande says the department is doing all it can to ensure stability in the 2017 academic year.
Nzimande briefed the media in Pretoria yesterday, saying student funding body NSFAS will be funding over 200 thousand first time and continuing applicants at universities.
Another 200 thousand students will receive funding at TVET colleges.
He says government is doing its best to provide funding for poor students.
"Government has also addressed the issue of historical debt of NSFAS qualifying students. All NSFAS qualifying students who were registered in 2016, and were successful in their studies, but who have accumulated historical student debt with institutions of higher education, will be allowed to register in 2017. All universities will also develop processes to enable academically successful "missing middle" students who have outstanding student debt to register in 2017," said Nzimande.
Nzimande added that universities have been requested to manage student debt through fair and transparent policies to ensure that outstanding student debt is recovered over a reasonable period.