Access, equity and redress: Towards a sustainable funding framework for public universities in South Africa

Abstract

This article aims to understand how access, equity and redress challenges are addressed at South Africa's public universities based on their current funding frameworks. Relying on a pragmatic research approach combining desk-research literature review and secondary data analysis, government funding and tuition fees were found to be the primary sources of funding in most universities, while third stream income from universities' own commercial activities lagged far behind. Secondary data from the public universities' audited annual financial statements for the period 2015 to 2020 further revealed that investment source income superseded third-stream income in most universities. There is consensus in literature on the pivotal role of equity-based funding mechanisms such as the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) in providing tuition cover and living expenses for students from poor households. Based on the agency theory, government funding is used to influence public universities to pursue transformation goals. The general trends observed in various countries is the inclusion of equity-based indicators in a funding model to ensure that students are not denied the opportunity for university education solely based on their poor backgrounds. It is argued in this paper that the NSFAS remains an appropriate vehicle to achieve South Africa's transformational goals in its public universities.