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Minister Blade Nzimande opens the new female students’ residence.

Concerns over management of NSFAS

 

The Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Blade Nzimande is worried about the allocation and management of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).

“This year alone, R9 billion has already been used to finance students, but it is not being managed in a good way and it is unable to fund them well. The department is committed to expanding the funding because the demand is so high.”

Nzimande was also worried about the strike of the South African Post Office, which he said is impacting negatively on institutions of higher learning, especially the University of South Africa, which has 35% of the students depending on the post office for their correspondence.

Nzimande and the principal of Univen, Prof Peter Mbati took part in the official opening of the extension to the School of Agriculture, the female student residence, an office complex, research conference centre, School of Health nursing laboratory, and student cafeteria on Thursday.

“We have a plan to fund the previously historically disadvantaged universities and Univen is set to benefit from the R410 million set aside to be used in the next five years' period. We warn students not to destroy the infrastructure during your strikes, because we want even the future generation to make use of it,” he said.

Nzimande also met the various stakeholders at the university and said that he was pleased to find out that the infrastructure at Univen was improving for the better. “Univen was the first university that I visited after I was first appointed Minister of Higher Education and Training in 2009, and some of the buildings here resembled a high school. Now it is a real university with state-of the art buildings.”

 

Date:23 October 2014

By: Silas Nduvheni

Read: 838

 

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