Effective management of student affairs in higher education : a study of financial aid

Abstract

Tertiary education campuses are no more the heart of peacefulness and scholastic study. They are turned into battlefields, administration and lecture hall buildings become the objects of siege, invasion and occupation. This is caused by the demands by students for adequate financial aid, the declining financial resources from government and the government's call for more access to tertiary education especially for the historically disadvantaged students. The problems in tertiary education pertain not only to financial problems, they also include cultural diversity, social and political issues. The financial aid to tertiary institutions is the main theme in this research. The research is based on a study of international and South African tertiary education systems in order to find ways to manage student affairs in tertiary education effectively and efficiently and to establish management strategies that will be acceptable to students, management, parents, all stakeholders and interest groups. In the end the management in tertiary education institutions should be able to effect the transformation based on the profound deficiencies of the present system which inhibit Higher Education's ability to meet the moral, social and economic demands of the new South Africa in the context of national and global opportunities and challenges.