In 2020, Universities South Africa (USAf) set out to raise R1 billion in 24 months to help pay off students’ historical debts and assist those who are still studying with fees and learning devices.
In a recent statement, USaf announced that the initiative officially surpassed the R1 billion mark, stating that the fundraising project raised an excess of R1,152,002,876, and will help over 27 000 students.
Some of the entities that made the goal possible were the Absa Group, Standard Bank Group, the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET). the Industrial Development Corporation of SA, as well as various Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs).
According to USaf, students who are eligible for funding relief are those from working-class families whose annual family income between R350,000 and R600,000, which places them above the qualifying threshold of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), yet also precludes them from qualifying for study loans from commercial banks.
They are often referred to as the “missing middle" students.
Some of the funds raised will also be targeted at postgraduate students in specific programmes who could not access grants from the National Research Foundation due to general budget limitations.
Dr Linda Meyer, Director of Operations and Sector Support at USAf expressed that the journey was not easy and thanked the donors for standing with USAf through the difficult times in trying to raise these funds.
“We still have 120 000 students that are unable to graduate because of debt owed to universities. We may have solved a small margin of the problem, but it has made a difference to the lives of 27 574 students and their families.”
Dr Meyer says that the organisation is focused on securing multi-year agreements to support poor and missing middle-income students that do not qualify for National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) or National Research Foundation (NRF) financial support.
The organisation is currently in talks with existing and prospective funding partners to further make more difference to the lives of students in need.
