Given the scarcity of fiscal revenue in the country, the resources needed to improve the education system will have to be generated, not through new cash, but through re-allocation. This has renewed calls for a re-examination of the funding model for tertiary education – a re-examination which takes account of the needs of students in poorer households, the increase in the demand for tertiary education, and the country’s current and long-term fiscal challenges. This brief examines the current tertiary funding model and presents funding alternatives. One possible way to reconcile these competing imperatives is with a funding model that, first, separates research from teaching, and second, shifts the burden of expenditure for teaching towards the principal consumers – the students – but in such a way as to enhance access and expand higher education.