Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande has denied reports that he is lobbying for increases to university fees and student residences.

The Department of Higher Education said university councils, not the minister, were authorised to determine fees in accordance with the Higher Education Act. 

The department said Nzimande's input only involves a guiding framework for determining fee structures.

The department's statement comes after a News24 report that Nzimande proposed a tuition and student residence fees hike of 4.5% and 6.5%, respectively. 

The report cited a letter, dated 28 December and addressed to the chairpersons of university councils, which stated that a three-year fee agreement could only be introduced between 2025 and 2027. 

The letter said students from the "missing middle", whose annual household income is between R350 000 and R600 000, would be hardest hit by the proposed hikes. 

Nzimande said that while the fee regulatory framework was expected to have been finalised by March 2022, this was not possible "as it became necessary to review the sequence of the complex work on funding in a context of fiscal consolidation".

The department said the minister's input was only in the interest of students from working-class families. 

"The minister does this with the sole intention of ensuring that, in how universities determine their fee structures, students, particularly those from poor and working-class backgrounds, are not adversely affected by the fee determinations of universities," the department said.