STELLENBOSCH SRC STUDENT FUNDING INITIATIVE
To whom it may concern,
Higher education is becoming more and more inaccessible due to the varying socio-economic issues facing a majority of the South African population. Various governmental schemes exist to support students, with the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) being the largest. Yet, even though NSFAS funding increases annually, the scheme often only partially covers students’ fees and living expenses. The number of students who can benefit from NSFAS funding remains limited, however. Given that more than half of South Africa’s population lives below the poverty line, tertiary education clearly remains inaccessible to most.
As a result, there has been a surge in student protests over the past three years over the issues of accessibility to higher education. As the Student Representative Council, we saw it fit to intervene and attempt to curb this wave.
In 2016, we started a campaign, #RegisterAll, which was aimed at ensuring accesses to Higher Education for students at Stellenbosch University. This campaign sought to address the barrier of student funding. We appealed to the larger population of South Africa ranging from the private sector to civil society for donations.
The campaign ran successfully and funds were collected to assist students during the course of the year. In total, the campaign raised over R500 000 and we were able to assist more than 60 students, each with R10 000 or less.
In addition to assisting students with funds for registration, the campaign also assisted in covering historical debts, particularly for students identified as the missing middle and those who were not funded by NSFAS. The funds gathered from this campaign also assisted with food allowances for students who had bursaries that did not cover their meals.
As the SRC for 2016/2017, we aim to raise more funds to assist as many academically deserving and financially needy students as possible; in line with our commitment to access and success. As of right now, we are faced with a predicament as the funds we had raised over the course of the previous year has ran out. Students are still in dire need of financial assistance and we can do nothing but turn them away due to the lack of funds.
We appeal to your generosity to assist us with a donation. Your donation will not only help us reach our goals to help students but also go a long way in keeping a student in university and ultimately a lasting impact on a student, their family and community.
Bank details:
Standard Bank
Stellenbosch University
Account Number: 073006955
Branch code: 050610
Reference: RegisterALL - H494
STUDENTERAAD
STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL
Student Success & Student Fees
Studente Sukses en Studente Gelde
TEL: (021) 808 2491
FAX: (021) 808 3735
CELL: 073862 1698
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