A student march ...

Every student with the potential to succeed at tertiary level is surely deserving of the opportunity …

You agree, don’t you?

Academically deserving students are deserving of a decent university education. The sad reality, however, is that many of these deserving students fall by the wayside solely because of a lack of financial support. They simply don’t have to the money to study.

And the present South African bursary pie is neither big enough nor adequately equipped to fairly distribute what it has.

Ask the thousands of promising prospective young students who have been forced to prematurely give up on their career dreams; ask the dozens of Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) students who had to stop studying because the promised financial support never materialised; ask the NMMU student who spent many nights sleeping under the boardwalk because his money ran out and the bursary money never arrived.

We shared innumerable stories of heartache earlier this year when the new centralised pilot project for NSFAS (National Student Financial Aid Scheme) failed to deliver upon so many of its promises and far fewer students at NMMU benefitted from the government initiative than before.

NMMU was one of half a dozen institutions of higher learning to form part of the national pilot project in which the distribution of funding was centralised. The statistics tell their own story:

· Of the 2493 first-years who applied for financial assistance, only 365 were successful (that 14.6%)

· Of the 4 881 senior students who applied, 3 231 were successful (66%) but (at last correspondence)

· Of the 471 BTech students who applied – and all but promised assistance – none received financial support.

In 2013, when NMMU was charging with distributing the NSFAS bursary pie, 3 207 senior and 1 063 first years received funding of varying amounts.

The bottom line – it appears NMMU did a better job than the new centralised team.

And that’s why NMMU students are marching on Thursday at midday.

They’ve issued an invitation for all students to join them in demanding an improved NSFAS system. Alternatively, if this is not possible, they’re asking NMMU to withdraw their support for the centralised national scheme.

Where: Gather at North Campus in front of the Letaba and Lebombo residences

When: At 1pm on Thursday

Route: Along Link Road to the traffic circle and head for South Campus

The students will then hand over a memorandum with their demands for an improved bursary scheme to the university’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof Derrick Swartz in front the main building.

It should all be over by 1pm.

It’s good to see students standing up for students, but it will be even better to see the NSFAS fiasco of earlier this year overhauled and improved to give deserving student the opportunity to a better life.

In addition to the march, NMMU's SRC has organised a meeting with NSFAS representatives from Cape Town to engage with students and to communicate their proposed solutions.

The SRC has asked that a NSFAS administrator be permanently stationed at NMMU so that students do not have to contact Cape Town for assistance.

SRC President Luzuko Ntshongwana says, "We're happy some students who have not been funded due to insufficient funds received funding this week. Nonetheless, we still need more funding for deserving students."

Nicely put ... and yes, we're agreed, more funding needs to be found for those deserving students.