Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande has called on the government to establish a student bank that will charge low interest rates to enable poor students to have access to education.

Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande has called on the government to establish a student bank that will charge low interest rates to enable poor students to have access to education.

"Honestly, I don't understand why we should be paying compound interest for people on education loans," Nzimande told an academic colloquium in Cape Town Town yesterday.

He also suggested using unspent cash from the National Skills Fund to put poor students through university.

Nzimande said it was unacceptable to have about R21billion in rollover expenditure in the fund "but at the same time complain that not enough students can access and succeed in higher education".

He said there was a strong argument to be made for transferring some of the money to the National Students Financial Aid Scheme since it made more sense to support a student through vocational college than to focus purely on job training. - Sapa