Dr Christine Rey and Mr Noam Pines at the University of the Witwatersrand. Since the writing of the respective viewpoints, revisions have been made to the government subsidies allocated to these two institutions but they still remain in a serious financial crisis. Because student registrations for the 1997 academic year started in October 1996, the timing of the announcement precluded the possibility of addressing the deficit by means of increased student fees in 1997. This leaves the institution to find the additional capital needed to maintain its activities from sources other than its two main sources of income. Should this be the case, such additional funding will not alleviate Unisa's position to any noticeable extent, since outstanding student debts do not amount to a very large sum.
Details are as yet scarce, but some implications are already clear.
These projects will be judged for funding according to policy objectives determined by the government. The implications of both the present subsidy cuts and the new funding proposals for higher education in South Africa are staggering. Nevertheless, surely the necessary changes must be effected in a way that best serves the continuous need of our country for effective and relevant tertiary education. The laudable goals of increased access to and massification of higher education, especially for the benefit of previously disadvantaged members of the community, will, in the short term at least, suffer irreparably from such a measure. It could force an institution such as Unisa, at which whom more than half of all black students in the country are at present registered, to cut down on its essential services to its students, such as expensive learner support and course development initiatives and the implementation of a learner-centred tuition model.