By Edwin Naidu
In 2014, South Africa’s National Development Plan stated that universities were key to developing a nation.
Universities play three main functions in society. First, they educate and train people with high-level skills for the employment needs of the public and private sectors. Second, universities are the dominant producers of new knowledge. They critique information and find new local and global applications for existing knowledge.
The NDP notes that universities also set norms and standards, determine the curriculum, languages and knowledge, and examine ethics and philosophy underpinning a nation’s knowledge capital.
Further, it states that South Africa needs knowledge that equips people for a constantly changing society. Given the country’s apartheid history, higher education provides opportunities for social mobility and simultaneously strengthens equity, social justice and democracy.
According to the plan, higher education underpinned by a strong science and technology innovation system in today’s knowledge society is increasingly important in opening people’s opportunities.
Therefore, it comes as a shock but no surprise that cash-strapped higher education institutions are minting money out of the misery of rejected students. They are all mindful that they can only accommodate a small number of students yet open it up widely, creating false expectations for which they charge a small sum that adds up to a princely windfall.
Reports are that the University of Witwatersrand received more than 140,000 applications for the 2025 academic year, but placed only 6300 new students, showing the heavy demand for places. They charge R100 for each online application, while non-South Africans, mainly from the continent, pay R700 for the privilege.
Wits, one of the country’s top universities and beneficiary of generous donations, makes an easy R15 million through rejected applications. After Christmas, this is a great bonus to start the academic year. However, the online application process is not unique to Wits; every institution is tasked with accepting applications in this manner.
Responding on social media as this debate escalates, the extremely proactive Wits head of communications, Shirona Patel, said that like other universities, Wits charges an application fee of R100 per applicant as approved by the education department.
“Wits University’s application fee has remained the same for the past six years. The university employs hundreds of assistants, senior students and part-time staff to assist with the application, administration and orientation programmes at the beginning of the year. In addition, online platforms and concomitant technology requires licensing and technical attention,” she said.
“Wits University received 31,136 postgraduate applicants and 86,893 undergraduate applicants, which makes up a total of 118,029 applications. It is quite a task to process all these applications. The university is a non-profit institution, and all proceeds go to the academic project and student support.”
While some universities have waived application fees for local students, institutions with application fees include the University of Cape Town (UCT), whose application fee in 2025 is R100 for South African and Southern African Development Community (SADC) applicants and R300 for other international applicants. Universities that charge a fee include:
- The University of Pretoria application fee for 2025 is R300
- University of Johannesburg: application fee is R200 for hardcopy applicants, free for online applicants.
- University of South Africa’s fee is R140 for online applications
- Tshwane University of Technology’s fee is R240
Universities with no application fees are:
- University of the Western Cape: Free online application
- University of Limpopo: Free online application
- Central University of Technology: Free application
- Nelson Mandela University: Free for South African citizens
- University of Free State: Free application
- Walter Sisulu University: Free application for local students
The newly proposed Draft Fee Regulation Framework for South African universities, released on 1 November 2024 by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), considers the feasibility and potential impact on the sector’s long-term sustainability.
Developed by a team of retired vice-chancellors, the framework came about as the government explored the possibility of limiting university fee increases.
The idea is that, through a fee compact, there is a limit beyond which a university cannot increase its tuition fees for local undergraduate students annually.
However, some institutions should consider whether to charge or not levy application fees. On the surface, and in terms of the Higher Education Act, the universities that are financially better off are allowed to mint money off students who will not have a chance to study at their institutions, while those who want to study at poorer, less-endowed historically black institutions can try their luck for free.
While the framework aims to address variations in fees charged for the same qualification across institutions, reduce student debt and improve accessibility to higher education, it must consider the morality of raising millions in application fees from students it ultimately rejects.
The broader issue of universities’ ability to accommodate growing student numbers should hark back to the 1995 National Commission on Higher Education under Professor Sibusiso Bengu. This framework for the transformation of the tertiary sector was largely ignored.
It’s time to go back to the drawing board to understand where South Africa is regarding the goals in the National Development Plan.
The Universities South Africa (USAf) chief executive Dr Phethiwe Matutu has consistently highlighted the challenges surrounding funding in higher education. She has been a key driver in raising the issue and finding solutions.
Dr Matutu has warned that enforcing such fee caps could exacerbate existing financial pressures on universities.
She noted that universities were increasingly becoming financially unsustainable, having to fork out the shortfalls in revenue that can’t be generated through fees across the board.
But should universities continue to make a quick buck from aspirant applicants? Former education chief Dr Blade Nzimande has always championed the poor but allowed this practice to continue longer than a decade in his reign. One hopes that the current DHRT Minister Dr Nobuhle Nkabane takes a more hands-on approach and really puts students first—not paying lip service to their aspirations.
Edwin Naidu is the Editor of Inside Education.
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