Tertiary education institutions‚ which have seen continued violent and destructive protests over the past year‚ will see a major increase in the amount they receive from the national fiscus this year.

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan announced a big jump of R16‚3 billion in government's higher education spend.

Of this‚ R5‚7 billion is the cost of President Jacob Zuma's promise to students that university fees will not increase.

Furthermore‚ R10‚5 billion has been budgeted to help clear student debt to the struggling National Students' Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS)‚ so that students do not have to interrupt their studies.

This amount will clear the debt of more than 71‚000 financially struggling students.

In total‚ government spending on higher education rises by a whopping 25% over the next three years - from R64 billion to R80 billion - at a high rate of 9‚1% per year.

In line with the needs stated in the National Development Plan‚ the number of tertiary students in South Africa are expected to rise from 1 million to 1‚1 million over the next three‚ years‚ the number of postgraduate students from 48‚300 to 56‚000‚ and the number of doctoral students from 2‚060 to 2‚500‚ Gordhan announced.

The additional money for universities was mostly drawn from compensation budgets‚ non-essential operational expenditure items and programmes with a history of underspending‚ Gordhan said.

- TMG Digital/TMG Parliamentary Bureau