Students have responded to the Higher Education Minister's announcement on the N+ ruling. Sabelo Mtyana, on behalf of other students affected by the N+2 rule like himself, has said that students support the rule but want to see change within it. They have also stated that the Department has made many promises to students but have not delivered on them, showing further that they are more concerned with their public image than actually serving the vulnerable student community.
On the N+ rule, Mtyana says, "students are not against the rule but against the application thereof" and that they believe that it, "is an effective instrument and a measure for academic ability. Above all, it is a necessary reinforcement for funded students to succeed academically which ensures that they graduate, vacate the system and allow other financially needy students to explore funding opportunities".
The change being asked of students concerning the N+ rule is that the years NSFAS has funded a student be counted and gap years be excluded from the count.
"We continue to witness a Ministry which is just a talk show with no substance. Without casting any aspersions, the abrupt unfunding of students is a tip of the iceberg to troubled deeper waters in NSFAS. We are calling on Minister Nzimande to refrain from drawing destitute students from poor backgrounds to his political storm with NSFAS finances. We ask of the Minister to do the honourable thing and count only the years that NSFAS paid towards student studies, this way thousands of dreams can be saved from being shattered", says Mtyana.
Nzimande has said that students should not want to fail, and that the N+ rule seems to make way for this. However, Mtyana wants to make three things clear and they read as follows:
- N+2 students are not failing students. These are students that paid out of pocket for their studies and due to family or personal matters were forced to drop out. Most took gap years as a result of this. Many are first time NSFAS applicants who have never received a cent of NSFAS money, some were funded by NSFAS only in 2018 and 2019
- The N+ rule does not count the years a student was funded by NSFAS. The count starts on the day that the student entered any Higher Education institution for the very first time irrespective of whether they were funded by NSFAS or not
- The rule states that it counts number of years registered at a public Higher Education institution, yet when applied in reality, NSFAS counts and includes gap years. A student that has deregistered is counted and seen as one that is registered
Following this he says, "it is clear that the allegation that students are staying longer at institutions than they are supposed to, is absolutely unfounded and designed to deliberately mislead the public and to perpetuate a narrow narrative."
The Department has said that students who are affected by the N+2 rule and fit the criteria which sees funding beyond those years possible, were allowed to send appeals in to their institutions. However, Sabelo commented that "This is absolutely not true – institutions are not accepting any appeals.
