Determinants of the perceptions of free Higher Education among students at a South African University

Abstract

The debate on the mode of financing of higher education is not a new one. For decades, there have been opposing views and conflicting efforts in as far as the financing of higher education is concerned. Most developed countries have more or less settled on a regime that does not compromise on both quality and equity by introducing financing mechanisms that allow the needy to borrow money or commonly known as soft loans only payable after graduating and securing a job. In developing countries, there is still antagonism and a lot of frustration among students and parents in the sense that higher education is still not accessible by many and the financing of the same still excludes the majority of deserving students. Towards the end of 2015 and beginning of 2016, students in South African universities rose up to first demand no increment of their tuition and thereafter free higher education. This paper looks at the perceptions of free higher education among students at one of the universities in South Africa and also assesses the demographic characteristics that inform their cosmological point of view and hence the perceptions.