South African universities get an extra $1.2 billion to improve student enrollment

Students protest outside the parliament ahead of South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan's medium term budget speech, in Cape Town, South Africa October 26, 2016. REUTERS/Sumaya Hisham

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Students at South African universities and higher education institutions will receive an extra 17 billion rand ($1.2 billion or 983.3 million pounds) over the next three years, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Wednesday.

The government of Africa's most industrilised country is under pressure to improve access to education following the protests that have disrupted learning at various campuses but has said in response to the protests that it could not allocate extra funds to education at the expense of health or housing.