Analysing the efficacy of the Namibia's student financial assistance fund

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Student Financial Support Schemes (SFSS) have become increasingly important inproviding financial assistance for students pursuing higher education, in both developedand developing countries. SFSSs were first established in the 1950s. The years thatfollowed saw an increase steady expansion of student loan programs, through theintroduction of student loans in more countries and expansion in the number of loansavailable in relation to their size and new expanded approach. The trend was in response tohigher education expansion, combined with increasing financial toughness and concern forequity, while at the same time there was a surge of interest in student loans in the late 1980sand 1990s, with new programs introduced in Australia, New Zealand, and the UnitedKingdom; several countries in eastern Europe, considering introducing student loans for thefirst time; and some developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America establishingor expanding student loan programs. The need for financial assistance is to enable studentsfrom low-income families to meet direct and indirect costs of higher education, and toensure equality of opportunity, equity, and social justice. Recent arguments focused onwhether student financial supports should be provided by governments, private agencies,employers, or institutions, and whether it should be in the form of scholarships, bursaries,grants either available to all students and or means-tested or fully repayable loans.Increasingly, debates also surrounds the question of how student loans should beadministered in particular, eligibility and terms of repayment of loans, appropriate rates ofinterest, and mechanisms to target disadvantaged students while minimising default rates.Firstly, this study did a comparison between the SFSSs of the four different countries.Secondly, the best practices were identified and the Namibian case study was evaluatedagainst the four countries. Lastly, some conclusions and recommendations were made thatare aimed to improve the SFSS in Namibia.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University