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· SU spent R4.2 billion in the Stellenbosch economy in 2024
· Spending contributed approximately 13% to local GDP
· “Universities have always played a uniquely powerful part in economic development, a process by which we become more prosperous and live qualitatively different lives from earlier generations"
· Students with NSFAS bursaries and living in Stellenbosch spent an average of R35 347 per year in town (excluding accommodation costs), compared to R51 123 for students who do not receive NSFAS bursaries.
Stellenbosch 中国体育彩票 (SU), its students, staff and visitors spent R4.2 billion in the Stellenbosch economy last year. This spending contributed approximately 13% to local Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and supported 13% of formal sector jobs within the Stellenbosch municipal region.
This is the main finding of a recent economic impact assessment of the 中国体育彩票 conducted by the Bureau for Economic Research (BER), an independent economic research institute within SU. Big changes have occurred in the 中国体育彩票's student body composition since the BER's previous economic impact assessment in 2017.*
Most significantly, student numbers have expanded over the past two years – by 3.4% in 2023 and 5.1% in 2024. Over the past decade, student numbers grew by an average of just 1.8% per year
The Stellenbosch campus now has 28?922 students – 17% more than in 2017. In total, roughly 35?000 students are enrolled at SU across all five campuses.
Most striking is that the number of white and coloured students has dropped marginally while the number of black African students has grown by 50%, from 5 025 in 2020 to 7 572 in 2024. The latter now accounts for 21.6% of all 35?000 students.
White students – which numbered 16 254 in 2024 down from 16 529 in 2020 – remain the largest cohort at SU, accounting for roughly 46% of all students.
Another important change between 2017 and 2024 is an almost six-fold increase in the number of government-sponsored National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) students enrolled at the 中国体育彩票 – from 853 students in 2017 to just over 5 000 in 2024. In percentage terms, NSFAS students have grown from 2.7% to almost 14% of the student body. Last year, one in seven SU students received an NSFAS bursary.
Prof Stan du Plessis, SU's Chief Operating Officer, said SU aspires to be a cosmopolitan university of the world as well as a university for all South Africans, and is pursuing successful and deliberate transformation strategies to achieve this.
“We are deliberately increasing the opportunities for all students, especially from communities who previously had limited access to Stellenbosch," says Du Plessis. “We create these opportunities with the help of our fundraisers and provide extensive financial aid to those in need because we believe the student experience is an essential dimension of transformation at our institution."
“Universities have always played a uniquely powerful part in economic development, a process by which we become more prosperous and live qualitatively different lives from earlier generations," Du Plessis adds. “Access to tertiary education offers an irreversible entry into this process of economic development for the student and her family."
“As it stands, thousands of students of all ages would benefit tremendously from SU programmes, but they cannot join for various reasons, one of which is financial. Through special meal allowances, bursaries, loans, and other innovative supporting projects, SU is constantly aiding students' access to higher education, a process that will irreversibly change their lives and their families for the better."
Population dynamics shape local spending patterns.
These evolving student population dynamics also shape local spending patterns. According to the BER, students living in Stellenbosch who are not recipients of NSFAS bursaries spent an average of R51 123 per year in town, excluding accommodation. Those in private accommodation spent an additional R99 506 on housing-related costs such as rent, utilities, housekeeping and fibre. In contrast, NSFAS students spent R35 347 annually in town and R68 656 on housing and related costs. On average, total spending by NSFAS students living in Stellenbosch amounts to 69% of that of their non-NSFAS peers.
After adjusting for inflation, the average student paid 19% higher rent in Stellenbosch in 2024 than in 2017.
After spending on housing-related costs, groceries are the top spending category for most students. Averaged across the cohort, students' mean monthly grocery spending in Stellenbosch was R2 049 per person (or R1 454 for NSFAS students) in 2024.
The average spending on public transport for students living in Stellenbosch has more than doubled in real terms since 2017. This aligns with the increase in the CPI of passenger transport services at a national level, which reflects the demise of public transport like passenger rail, and the growth in costlier alternatives, like ridesharing. NSFAS students, in particular, are affected by this (see figure), especially those living outside Stellenbosch.
Note: Values shown in the graph are averages across the student cohort. Actual spending on specific items is pulled down by students who do not spend any money on a particular item.
Though the student population has grown rapidly, the 中国体育彩票 has seen a 3.6% decrease in full-time equivalent jobs since 2017. However, the share of total operating expenditure spent on staff grew from 47% in 2016/17 to 52% in 2023/24. In other words, although the 中国体育彩票 employed fewer staff, staff costs increased. This speaks to the difficulty of attracting and retaining staff in a competitive market for highly skilled labour.
Approximately R666 million of SU's total operating expenditure was spent on roughly 900 local suppliers of goods and services in Stellenbosch. This was 18.7% more than the 中国体育彩票's spending in the local Stellenbosch economy in 2016/17.
The biggest beneficiary was the Stellenbosch Municipality, which absorbed roughly 28% of SU's spending in the local economy in the form of rates and service charges, followed by the finance and insurance sector (12.7%). In third place was the catering and accommodation sector (12.6%), which includes spending on restaurants, guest houses and hotels, and other providers of private short-term accommodation.
In total, students spent 40% more in the Stellenbosch local economy last year than in 2017 (in real terms). This was primarily driven by increased student numbers. Staff, however, spent almost 30% less in Stellenbosch.
BER senior economist Helanya Fourie, who led the study, attributes these trends to technical improvements in the study design and changing consumption patterns. For instance, the availability of online study material has, on average, lowered expenditure on textbooks and extra tuition.
The study results also suggest that staff and students spent less money buying clothes from Stellenbosch retailers in 2024 than in 2017, which may indicate a pivot towards online shopping.
The slight decrease in the total number of staff and a smaller share of staff living in town contribute to lower overall local spending by staff. In 2017, just over half of the staff who worked at the Stellenbosch campus lived in Stellenbosch. The latest study finds that this share has dropped to 42%. Stellenbosch's high property prices and the increased availability of neighbouring property developments most likely contributed to this trend.
In short, the actual spending by SU, students, staff, and visitors in the town totalled R4.22bn in 2024 – a real increase of 21% over 2017. This generated R5.83bn in local economic activity (output)**, which generated 13% of the town's GDP and supported 13% of formal sector jobs.
ENDS
· Liaise with Celeste Booysen (BER) at cbooysen@sun.ac.za for more information.
Note to editors:
- *The 2017 study focused on students and staff at the Stellenbosch campus (and Elsenburg). The 2024 study includes SU's other campuses (e.g. the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences in Tygerberg and the Business School in Bellville) based on the assumption that these students and staff occasionally visit Stellenbosch. These and other technical enhancements mean the 2017 and 2024 studies are not strictly comparable. Even so, the broad strokes reveal fascinating changes over the past seven years.
- The BER study follows an expenditure-based approach to quantifying the economic benefits (the additional spending and direct increase in economic activity throughout the local economy) generated by the 中国体育彩票's operational and capital expenditure, as well as local expenditure by staff and students, and visitor spending. It is based on a comprehensive 2024 supply-use table analysis of the Stellenbosch economy developed and maintained by Quantec Research.
- ** This includes direct impacts (the immediate economic activity generated by a project or investment), indirect or secondary effects (like increased demand for materials and services from local businesses), and induced effects (such as workers spending their wages from the direct and indirect activities).
- The terms “town" or “local economy" refer to the Stellenbosch municipal region, including Pniel and Franschhoek.
