Tertiary institutions will get R4,1-billion more from the education department in the coming year, as the government increased its funding to R19,3-billion.

This was announced by Education Minister Naledi Pandor at a press conference at Wits University on Thursday.

"Government funding of the public higher education system has risen sharply in recent years, and is expected to continue to increase at rates above inflation," said Pandor.

"Higher education is extremely important and we don't plan to stop investments (into tertiary education)."

In 2007/8, government funds for tertiary institutions totalled R15,3-billion. This was increased by 27 percent to 19,3-billion for 2009/10.

Included in the increased funding is R13,3-billion for block grant funds, or subsidy funds. These funds are mainly used for staffing and operational costs of universities.

Included in the subsidy funds is a total of R1,7-billion – up from R1,4-billion – for research.

Pandor also said that a total investment of R10,4-billion will be spent on improvements in the infrastructure of tertiary institutions between 2007 and 2012.

"Students come up to me and say we are learning economics by rumour, as we cannot get into the classrooms. We learn by hearing about economics from our classmates," said Pandor.

Government would contribute a total of R6,9-billion -- R3,6-billion between 2007 and 2010 and R3,3-billion from 2010 to 2012 -- while the universities will contribute the rest through private resources such as investment income, donations and commercial loans raised.

Pandor said two of the projects approved for the period between 2007 and 2010 are the remodelling, extending and refurbishing of an existing engineering and science building at Wits, as well as completing a fourth quadrant of an existing building and upgrading science laboratories at the same university.

This project would cost a total of R350-million.

The second project involves spending R278-million for building new facilities and upgrading existing ones at the medical and science buildings of the University of Limpopo.

The Department also approved a total of R842-million to be spent towards infrastructure projects at historically black universities.

This includes funding of R454-million for upgrading and developing new facilities for science and engineering at Walter Sisulu University, R258-million for infrastructure and curriculum projects at the University of Venda and R130-million for infrastructure projects at the University of Zululand.

Vice Chancellor of Wits Prof Loyiso Nongxa said the increased funding and investment in infrastructure is sorely needed as last year's National Senior Certificate yielded an increased number of students qualifying for university entrance.

The total applicants at Wits increased by 27%  this year to 14 083, compared to last year's 11090. The number of applicants with A symbols increased from 11 212 to 14 472.