Education Minister allocates additional funds to NWU

The Minister of Education, Ms Naledi Pandor, has allocated R42 million to the North-West University. The funds will be used for obtaining additional facilities for the Vaal Triangle Campus and the refurbishment of student residences on the Mafikeng Campus.

The restructuring process that has been underway in higher education has thus far led to the provision of additional funding totaling R1,2 billion. Of this, R457 million was made available for the recapitalisation of the following universities:

University of the Western Cape (R170 million)
University of Fort Hare (R100 million)
Durban University of Technology (R163 million); and
The Qwaqwa campus of the University of Free State was allocated (R24 million)
The remaining amount was allocated to 5 institutions for direct merger costs, such as the integration of academic and administrative structures and the upgrading of facilities and infrastructural development. Break down of allocations are as follows:

R150 million to the University of Kwazulu-Natal for the relocation of academic faculties;
R30 million was availed to the University of Fort Hare for the refurbishment of student residences on the Alice Campus;
R36 million was given to the Tshwane University of Technology for the refurbishment of student residences on the Soshanguve and Ga-rankuwa campuses.
R18 million was allocated to the Cape Peninsula University of Technology for the upgrading of the library on the Belville campus.
R14.67 million was forwarded to the University of Venda to address infrastructural backlogs.
To date, the DoE has already allocated R280 million of the merger related funding to improving the overall ICT functionality of higher education institutions.