A combination of online learning platforms and municipal free WiFi can address the urgent need to reduce the cost of higher education in SA.
This is the sentiment shared by Myles Thies, head of strategic services at Eiffel, and serial entrepreneur Alan Knott-Craig Jnr.
These comments are on the back of the #FeesMustFall movement, which has seen young South Africans take to the streets in protest of high education fees.
The hashtag also resulted in a #DataMustFall campaign, which called on operators to lower the cost of mobile data.
According to Thies, using online learning platforms reduces the need for brick-and-mortar buildings.
Online platforms can be used to spread learning materials over a potentially unlimited number of students; provided they can access a free WiFi account, he says.
Thies explains: "Online learning, specifically video learning, allows for the costs of lecturers, selected learning materials and assessments to be spread over a much wider student base without increases in infrastructure spend using well-established video sharing and hosting providers.
"This ability to share the same lecture with hundreds or even thousands of students at the same time could reduce the fees required per student to cover the total production costs of that lecture to a much smaller figure."
Knott-Craig Jnr, who is also the founder of Project Isizwe and CEO of wireless Internet service provider HeroTel, says if a student in a low income community were to download online lectures using 3G data at out of bundle rates of R1, it would cost over R170 000 per annum.
"The average university course comprises 12 modules of 32 hours each. That equates to a total of 384 hours of lectures a year," he says.
"At present, Vodacom's out-of-bundle 3G data rate is R1/MB. Assuming an average video quality of 480p, the total cost of viewing a year's worth of lecturing would be R177 408."
This is totally unaffordable for almost all students, rich and poor alike, says Knott-Craig Jnr.
South Africa has the second highest data contract prices among the Brics member countries, coming second only to Brazil.
"Even a 10x reduction in data costs would result in data costs that are out of reach of the average student. The answer is for the government to start subsiding free WiFi in poor communities."
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