SA Affordable Housing January / February 2017 // Issue: 62 | Page 22

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Ivy League Potchefstroom. Image: Berts Bricks

“It all comes together in an intense pressure point,
especially when you add to that the expectation from
students,” explains Craig McMurray, CEO of Respublica, one
of the country’s leading developers, owners and managers
of student accommodation. “With ‘Fees must fall’ we’re
seeing a lot of pressure around tuition fees but I don’t
think there is enough attention on the entire eco-system
that supports the student. You can’t divorce academics
from accommodation.”
“The student housing shortage is a national crisis not
only because young people are desperate and angry, and
increasingly expressing it,” says Schooling. “We need to
address it because accommodation plays a huge role in
academic success. First year students in good on-campus
accommodation have an 80% chance of passing, a
percentage that is almost halved when they are not
adequately housed.” Reflecting this, South Africa’s
throughput at universities (the percentage of graduates
versus the total university’s population) is 15% against a
global average of 25%. By changing nothing other than the
provision of good accommodation, our throughput could
increase to 23%, Schooling advises.
“There is a close link between the environment of a
student and the student actually finishing with a degree,”

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JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2017

AFFORDABLE
SA HOUSING

McMurray agrees. “There is no point in putting someone
who has the ability to pass into the system if the odds are
stacked against them because of the environment they are
living in. If you want to put people through the system (and
if you want the state to pay for it), we should expect a
result. If we don’t provide the accommodation, we’re not
going to get the result. Which means we’re funding many
students who won’t come out of the system with the
necessary qualifications. We need to look at the whole
ecosystem of a student. If you’re funding them, we need to
ensure it’s not just for the studies, but accommodation too.
So they can have the best chance of succeeding.”
Housing constitutes at least 40% of a student’s total
cost at university so it needs to be top of mind when one
looks at the total cost of tuition.
“Given the restricted and strained budgets of
universities, we need to find ways to do that at a low cost
– but crucially and at the same time, we must not
compromise quality,” says Schooling. “New student
residences must be built according to core principles to
ensure student success, namely: innovation, sustainability,
community, flexibility, technology and specific to the
African context, job creation, affordability and funding.”
These are called the 21st Century Project Principles.