MAM1022F ASSIGNMENT

Assignment Part 2

MAY 8, 2023
Nadia witbooi
MAM ESSAY:

The question that has been raised is whether free higher education is possible in South
Africa. Most experts in the field, commentators in the media, and the higher education
minister believe that it is. However, statistician-general Pali Lehohla speaking at the
presentation of Statistics South Africa's report on higher education finance argues that free
higher education would be possible if university students did not take more years to
complete their courses than required. In this essay, we will be discussing why free higher
education would not be possible in South Africa.

Higher education doesn't come for free. There are costs associated with studying, both in
terms of money and time. Tertiary education such as universities and colleges is expensive.
Public universities receive subsidies from the government, but it's not always enough to
cover their costs. The institutes received money from students, donors, research, and other
activities which help the universities sustain themselves and uphold the standard of their
facilities for students. If free high education were to be introduced in South Africa the
government would need to provide an additional R 7.7 billion to universities. This would be
in addition to the current public subsidy of R 17.5 billion. If money were to be spent on
housing for students in university residences, that would cost around R 1.3 billion. But if we
also provide housing and food for all students, it will cost an extra R 21 billion. This extra
money could be used to address other important issues, like poverty, job creation, and
health care.

In South Africa, free higher education will widen the gap between rich and poor people
because the low participation rate (currently at 20%) [Blade Nzimande, 2015] means that
only a small number of people will be able to get into university, immediately restricting the
number of students who can enrol in courses. In addition, the main problem for the poor in
South Africa is that they don't have enough money to afford higher education. Less than 5%
of them can qualify for admission into universities. Those whose parents earn more than
R600,000 won't have as much chance of going to university as those whose parents earn
less. This is because the percentage of students who qualify to go to university is in the tax
bracket which is over 70%. The Minister of Higher Education, Blade Nzimande, announced a
new payment system that will be easier to understand and have fewer payments. He
marked off three bands (or categories): 1) For those from poorer families making below
R120 000 won't have to pay fees, but we will be able to get help from the government in the
form of loans. 2) The people who are very well-off, or in the middle class, will be required to
pay more fees next year due to increases. 3) The middle class that earns between R120 000
and R600 000 will not have to pay any new fees this year, as universities have capped at 8%
on the amount that can be increased.
Statistician-general Pali Lehohla states that students who take longer to finish their studies
are one of the main reasons that free education is not possible. Lehohla said that free
tertiary education would be possible if students were not taking too long to complete their
courses. The number of students attending universities in Korea and Switzerland is
increasing because the governments are paying for tuition for their citizens. In South Africa,
there are a lot of people (there are 400 000 out of a million) [Pali Lehohla, 2017] who don't
have to go to school because they don't have to pay for tuition. If these people didn't exist,
the government could afford to pay for their education. The students aren't moving as
quickly as they're supposed to. So, we need to find a way to solve the situation so that we
don't have that many students in the system, which would clog it up. Funding-wise, Lehohla
says that in 2016, the country's 26 higher education institutions received the money in three
ways: through grants (R30 billion) [Pali Lehohla, 2017], tuition fees (R21.6 billion) [Pali
Lehohla, 2017], and donations (R15.7 billion) [Pali Lehohla, 2017]. Lehohla said that South
Africa's public higher education institutions had a total income from operating activities of
R67.4 billion.

A lot of people believe that the free higher education movement is based on the idea that
students who are unable to afford college are poor and in need of help or financial aid. But
that is really not the case - only 5% of South Africans aged 15-34 go to universities, and 34%
are unemployed. The call for free higher education for all will only help to reinforce the
existing inequalities between those who have access to education and those who don't. The
problem with the South African Students Congress' call is that it is asking for free higher
education to be given to everyone, rather than to those who need it, because this
organization is associated with very radical politics, this demand is not realistic – most
people in South Africa will be able to afford to get a higher education, even if the Students
Congress gets their way.

Reference:
De Jager, E. and Bitzer, E., 2018. The views of commerce students regarding “free”
higher education in South Africa. South African Journal of Higher Education, 32(4),
pp.12-36.
Wangenge-Ouma, G. and Cloete, N., 2008. Financing higher education in South
Africa: Public funding, non-government revenue and tuition fees. South African
Journal of Higher Education, 22(4), pp.906-919.
Badat, S., 2016. Deciphering the meanings, and explaining the South African higher
education student protests of 2015–16. Pax Academica, 1(1), pp.71-106.
Kaya, H.O. and Seleti, Y.N., 2013. African indigenous knowledge systems and
relevance of higher education in South Africa. International Education Journal:
Comparative Perspectives, 12(1).
Mutekwe, E., 2017. Unmasking the ramifications of the fees-must-fall-conundrum in
higher education institutions in South Africa: A critical perspective. Perspectives in
Education, 35(2), pp.142-154.
Cloete, N., 2016. For sustainable funding and fees, the undergraduate system in
South Africa must be restructured. South African Journal of Science, 112(3-4), pp.1-
5.
Walker, M. and Mkwananzi, F., 2015. Challenges in accessing higher education: A
case study of marginalised young people in one South African informal
settlement. International Journal of Educational Development, 40, pp.40-49.
Motala, E., Vally, S. and Maharajh, R., 2018. Education, the state and class
inequality: The case for free higher education in South Africa. New South African
Review, 6, pp.167-182.

MAM1014/22F Assignment Part 2

Plagiarism: Do not allow other students to copy your work. Complete the following
declaration, attach it to the back of your assignment and submit it as part of your
assignment.

DECLARATION

1. I know that plagiarism is wrong. Plagiarism is to use another’s work and pretend that
it is one’s own.
2. I have not allowed, and will not allow, anyone to copy my work with the intention of
passing it off as his or her own work.
3. The writing for this assignment is my own work and I worked on my own when
writing.
Please sign below:

NAME Nadia Witbooi______________________

DATE ____7 May 2023_____________________

Student name: ___WTBNAD002______________________

Student number: ______1886470___________________
Lecturer’s name: ___Duncan Mhakure______________________

Please attach this sheet and the marking rubric to your submission

MAM1014/22F Assignment

TASK
There has been much discussion in the public domain about higher education funding in
South Africa since the Fees Must Fall movement emerged in 2015. And yet, there is still no
consensus about the best way to fund higher education. Write an essay that argues whether
free higher education is possible in South Africa. Use the readings (available on the Vula site)
to support your argument.

PART 2
Write an essay that makes an argument to respond to the task above by using your answers
to Part 1 of this assignment and incorporating whatever feedback you have received there.

ESSAY CRITERIA
Your essay should:

 Provide a point of view and support it with evidence.

 Have 4 paragraphs altogether, which should be the Introduction, two evidence
paragraphs which make up the body of the essay, and the conclusion.
 Include a general statement, background, thesis statement and outline in its
introduction.
 Include a topic sentence, evidence sentences and concluding sentence in each
evidence paragraph.
 Include a summary and a paraphrase of the thesis in the conclusion.
 Be a maximum of 750 words in length.
Part 2 of the assignment is due by 11am on the 29th of April. Late submissions may be
penalised by 5% of the total mark per day (including weekends). You must submit a
hardcopy to your lecturer AND an electronic copy on Vula (under the “Assignments” tab).

This assignment assesses your competency in writing about quantitative information. Your
assignment will count 15% towards your final class record.

Please hand in your marked copy of Part 1 with Part 2 of the assignment

For maximum points it must

Marking Rubric for Part 2 Marks
have:
General statement and/or

Text organisation and background

Introductio essay structure  Thesis statement

n paragraph  Outline
Thesis statement responds to the
Content and evidence 
task i.e. appropriate point of view
 Topic sentence
Text organisation and  Evidence sentences
essay structure
 Conclusion sentence
First  Topic sentence
Logic
Paragraph
Content and  Evidennce supports topic sentence
evidence QL  Values
Reasoning
 Units & correct variables
 Topic sentence
Text organisation and  Evidence sentences
essay structure
 Conclusion sentence
Second  Topic sentence
Logic
Paragraph
Content and  Evidennce supports topic sentence
evidence QL  Values
Reasoning
 Units & correct variables
Conclusion Text organisation and  Summary of topic sentnces
 Paragrah essay structure  Paraphrase of thesis
 Four pargraphs
Format  Full sentences
Essay
format and  Word count
referencing  In-text references
Referencing
 Full list of references
Part 1 marks 
Total 41

RUBRIC FOR AN EXAMPLE ESSAY

There has been much discussion in the public domain about outsourcing at South African Universities
since the Fees Must Fall movement emerged in 2015. But while some Universities have since proceeded
to insource, the effect of this insourcing is not yet clear. Argue for the likely effect of insourcing in higher
education in South Africa.

SAMPLE ANSWER (PART 2) MARKS

South African Universities are facing a very difficult situation following a series Introduction:
of student protests that first emerged in 2015. In an un-usual alliance between Text organisation and
student protesters and university service workers, a student movement essay structure
 background
successfully and swiftly lobbied for a freeze on fee increases in 2016 and an
 thesis statement
end to outsourcing in higher education in general, giving these workers  outline
permanent jobs as direct employees (Forde 2016). However, this has led to has
Content and evidence
led to a fiscal crisis in higher education. Here in this essay it is argued that
 responds to
insourcing is likely to cripple the universities in the current environment. This is the task i.e. a
demonstrated by first showing that insourcing is relatively expensive, and decisive point of
view
second that the fee increases from 2017 onwards are unable to keep up with
the rising costs of higher education.

Insourcing has led to a significant increase in university costs. As permanent

employees, service workers expect to earn more than they would as workers
contracted by a third-party company, and these increases are paid for by the First Paragraph:
Text organisation and
universities. For example, service workers earned an average R5000 a month,
but in negotiations there have been demands for as much as R10 000, essay structure
according to Universities of SA CEO Ahmed Bawa (Forde 2016). Indeed, at the  topic sentence
 evidence
University of the Witswatersrand in 2016, where 1 530 previously outsourced
sentences
workers have been directly employed, the added cost was more than R100m,  conclusion
which was 3% of the university’s total costs that year, according to the Vice- sentence

Chancellor, Adam Habib (ibid). And a study by Universities South Africa

Content and evidence
indicates that insourcing could cost the sector somewhere between R400 Logic
million and R2 billion (Universities South Africa 2016, 5). These increases have  topic
sentence logically
undoubtedly put pressure on university budgets, which depend on increases in
supports thesis
tuition fees to be balanced.
QL reasoning
 evidence
However, tuition fee increases are unlikely to keep up with the rising costs of
supports ts
higher education. After all, while student protests put pressure on the  values
government to limit the increases in fees, the cost of higher education in  units & correct
variables
general continues to rise faster than the increases in the average price of
goods and services. For example, the protests pressured government to freeze
tuition fees in 2016 i.e. a 0% increase, while the Higher Education Price Index
Second Paragraph:
(HEPI) for that year stood at over 8%, around 2 percentage points above the
Text organisation and
CPI (Universities South Africa 2016, 2). And even though the Treasury supplied essay structure
additional funds in 2016 to fill the gap left by the freezing of fees, this extra  topic sentence
 evidence
funding was not enough to buck the trend of declining state funding as a
sentences
proportion of the universities’ budgets.  conclusion
sentence
Given the severity of these difficulties, insourcing is likely to cripple the
Content and evidence
universities. Not only is insourcing a financial strain on the universities, but it Logic
has also come at a time when the student protests make increasing tuition  topic
sentence logically
fees very difficult and at a time when state funding for higher education is in
supports thesis
decline relative to the student numbers. And so, even though insourcing marks
an improvement remuneration and work conditions of thousands of service QL reasoning
 evidence
workers in the universities, it may also tip the balance towards a fiscal crisis in
supports ts
the sector that is crucial to the country’s attainment of its developmental  values
goals.  units & correct
 variables
References:
Conclusion:
Forde, Fiona. 2016. “Insourcing Set to Cripple Universities.” BusinessDay.
Text organisation and
https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/education/2016-07-18- essay structure
insourcing-set-to-cripple-universities/.  summary of main
body
Universities South Africa. 2016. “Universities Funding in South Africa: A Fact  paraphrase of
thesis
Sheet,” 1–9.
http://www.uct.ac.za/usr/news/downloads/2016/UniversitiesFundingSou
thAfrica_FactSheet.pdf.

Essay Format
 Four paragraphs
 full sentences
etc
 word count

Referencing
 In-text
references
 list of
references