Briefing by the Department of Higher Education on its Q2 and Q3 Performance and Financial Reports; with Ministry

ATC251105: Budgetary Review and Recommendation Report of the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education on its Assessment of the 2024/25 Annual Reports of the Department of Higher Education and Training and Entities, Dated 29 October 2025 The Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training received the Department of Higher Education and Training's Second and Third Quarter Performance and Financial Report for the 2025/26 financial year. The Minister, both Deputy Ministers, the Director-General, and senior departmental officials were in attendance. Members welcomed the full attendance of the Ministry, noting this was a significant demonstration of commitment to parliamentary accountability. The Department reported that all 15 direct targets planned for the second quarter had been achieved, a result Members acknowledged as encouraging. Performance declined in the third quarter, with 14 of 17 direct targets achieved at a rate of 82%. System targets, which measure performance across 26 autonomous universities and reflect data the Department cannot fully control, were met in full in the second quarter but fell to only 7 of 18 in the third quarter, representing a 39% achievement rate. Members expressed serious concern about this systemic underperformance and called on the Department to assert its oversight mandate over institutions more confidently rather than attributing shortfalls to institutional autonomy. Infrastructure underperformance was identified as the Committee's most urgent concern. Members placed on record a detailed pattern of near-complete financial expenditure in Programme 2 alongside deeply inadequate non-financial performance across multiple consecutive financial years. In 2023/24, Programme 2 spent 97.6% of its R1.493 billion allocation while achieving only 64% of targets. In 2024/25, it spent 99.5% of R3.704 billion while achieving only 31% of targets. Members characterised this pattern as fiscal dumping, with funds transferred to institutions in late February or early March and institutions then expected to spend and account to the Auditor-General within days. No single Community Education and Training (CET) college had been built in three financial years despite infrastructure targets having been set since 2023/24. Members directed the Minister to activate penalty and substitution clauses in implementing agent agreements and to report progress to the Committee towards the end of the first quarter of the 2026/27 financial year. Members raised substantial concerns about the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS). The turnaround strategy target for the third quarter was not achieved, with a Cabinet memorandum having been submitted in its place. The Committee found this unacceptable, noting that a Cabinet memorandum was neither equivalent to nor a substitute for the APP target of a turnaround strategy, and directed that the target be properly fulfilled in the 2026/27 plan. The NSFAS loan scheme, introduced in the current year to assist students with historic debt, recorded only 27 uptakes against a target of 2 460 despite more than 17 000 applications having been received. The Committee directed NSFAS to provide a written explanation, having been informed that the system had been unable to distinguish between bursary and loan applications, causing eligible students to be rejected. The Minister confirmed that NSFAS was operating under a 60-day stabilisation plan, that weekly oversight meetings had been held building up to the reopening of the 2026 academic year, and that a comprehensive reform of the student funding model and the institutional form through which it would be administered was targeted for completion by 2027. The Committee engaged extensively on the CET sector, which Members described as chronically underfunded at approximately R2 billion of a R147 billion sectoral budget and poorly positioned within the post-school education and training system. Members noted that 78% of CET students were youth and the majority were women, and raised concern that the sector was being incorrectly cited as a placement option for recent matric graduates when it primarily served adults who were too old for the basic education system but under-qualified for post-secondary study. Members directed the Department to submit the physical addresses of all 1 791 CET centres and the three college construction sites to the Committee in writing. The Deputy Minister committed to a broader discussion on the strategic repositioning of the CET sector with interested Members. Members raised a range of additional concerns, including: the decline in graduates in engineering and health sciences; persistent financial exclusions of students by institutions despite adequate academic performance; the use of acknowledgement of debt and financial exclusion criteria in ways that appeared inconsistent and in some cases potentially racialised; the inadequate reach of Higher Health programmes, with students at several institutions reporting no awareness of the entity; and the failure of universities to comply with the fee cap social compact. The Department was directed to submit actual performance figures from Higher Health against its APP targets, covering both the 80% skills programme reach target and the 90% gender-based violence and mental health screening target. Universities were directed to submit data on the employment of foreign nationals by 18 March. The Department confirmed that the draft Higher Education Act amendment would be submitted to the Committee by 31 March, after which the Committee would initiate its own public consultation process. The meeting concluded with the Minister indicating three priority areas for further engagement with the Committee: the infrastructure turnaround programme; the strategic positioning of CET colleges; and the suite of legislative amendments in the post-school sector, including the Higher Education Act, the National Qualification Framework (NQF) Act, and central application services legislation. The Committee noted these commitments and indicated it would follow up rigorously on all outstanding written undertakings made during the meeting.