Perceptions on ‘Free’ Tertiary Education and Operational Budgeting within a Public University in South Africa

A series of strikes by public university students protesting the exorbitant cost of tertiary education across South Africa in 2015, set the stage for the government to be coerced into implementing a ‘free’ tertiary education policy that it neither planned nor prepared for. This implies that any financing activated by the government to support the financial difficulties in tertiary education had to be re-prioritized from other government programmes. The main objective of this study is to examine the perceptions of heads of departments, and directors of directorates on ‘free’ tertiary education in relation to operational budgeting within a public university in Gauteng, South Africa. The study was conducted at one public university in Gauteng province via Zoom under COVID-19 restrictions. The study embraced critical realism as its research paradigm as per a qualitative research approach, using semi-structured interviews to achieve the empirical objective of the study. Thematic analysis was used to analyse data. The findings of the study revealed that participants welcome ‘free’ tertiary education as a system but are sceptical about its sustainability. The findings also specified that the implementation of ‘free’ tertiary education in a developing economy such as South Africa will have a range of negative effects, and will increase the financial burden on taxpayers. The study concluded that ‘free’ tertiary education is likely to remain a burning issue in the educational sector in South Africa as a result of the present insufficient funding for the model