South Africa is lagging behind the rest of the continent in terms of university funding‚ the South African Student Congress (Sasco) said in a statement.

“We see yet again that the programme of implementing free education has been postponed‚ if not relegated to permanent oblivion‚” it said in reaction to the budget vote presented in Parliament on Wednesday by Blade Nzimande.

The higher education and training minster had projected budget increases over three years “at an annual average rate of 5.9%‚ from R39-billion in 2014/15 to R46.3-billion in 2017/18”.

Sasco said it did not believe “the increase is decisive in addressing our prevailing situation”.

“University funding in South Africa still lags behind even the African average in terms of the overall budget of the country’s national fiscus‚” Sasco said.

“We are currently sitting at 1.4% and the African average is 1.8%. Until the government and more particularly the National Treasury increases higher education allocation we will continue to be chasing shadows as a nation.”

Sasco said it was “taken aback by the less than 1% increase in National Financial Student Aid Scheme (NSFAS) funding allocation for the coming financial year”.

“This is particularly concerning as NSFAS covers less than 50% of students who meet the current means test requirement for funding‚ excluding an overwhelming majority of needy students who continue to face financial exclusion‚” said Sasco.

“This essentially means that we will be faced with an even bigger crisis of student funding in 2016 as current students will be competing for funding with new entrants into the system.”

Nzimande mentioned on Wednesday that the NSFAS was a cause for concern.

“By the end of May 2015 a forensic investigation will have commenced to determine the depth of corrupt practices in the administration of NSFAS‚” he told Parliament.