President Jacob Zuma has extended the deadline for the fees commission to complete its report to June 30, 2017, the Presidency said on Wednesday.

He received the Commission of Inquiry into Higher Education and Training’s interim report earlier this month.

It was established in January to investigate the feasibility of free higher education in South Africa.

The final report was expected to be completed within eight months. The commission’s terms of reference were amended to make provision for the extension.

Presidency spokesperson Bongani Ngqulunga said that the commission chairperson, Judge Jonathan Heher, had submitted the interim report to Zuma after only three of the proposed eight sets into which the commission had divided its work had been completed.

The structure was determined in an effort to reach a full understanding of the factors affecting higher education and training in South Africa.

Its terms of reference include looking at the financial sustainability and institutional autonomy of universities; and assessing the roles government, universities, the private sector, and students should play in funding higher education.