The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) helps individuals pay for their studies through a NSFAS bursary. The NSFAS bursary covers tuition and accommodation fees, transport, and also provides NSFAS allowances for groceries and study materials such as textbooks or laptops.
Applying for NSFAS funding is a common financial aid option that many consider when it comes to pursuing tertiary education, as it funds current and prospective students who wish to study at one of South Africa's 26 public Universities or 50 Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges.
The NSFAS bursary covers a wide range of courses offered and studied at these institutions, with a few exceptions.
It's important to remember that NSFAS only funds your first qualification and won't fund your postgraduate one, including postgraduate certificates and diplomas, Honours or Masters Degrees.
NSFAS offers funding for first undergraduate degrees only, including online and full-time courses given by public universities or TVET colleges.
Typically most undergraduate courses are funded; here is a list of some of those courses:
- Hospitality, Tourism and Travel
- Human Resources
- Industrial & Organizational Governance and HR Development
- Information Studies
- Information Technology and Computer Sciences
- Language
- Life Sciences
- Literature
- Marketing
- Mathematical Sciences
- Media Studies
- Music
- Nature Conservation
- Office Administration
- People/Human-Centred Development
- Performing Arts
- Physical Planning, Design, and Management
- Physical Sciences
- Preventive Health
- Primary Agriculture
- Process Plant Operations
- Procurement
- Project Management
- Promotive Health and Developmental Services
- Psychology
- Public Administration
- Public Policy, Politics, and Democratic Citizenship
- Public Relations
- Rehabilitative Health/Services
- Religious and Ethical Foundations of Society
- Rural and Agrarian Studies
- Safety in Society
- Education
- Secondary Agriculture
- Traditions, History, and Legacies
- Transport, Operations, and Logistics
- Urban and Regional Studies
- Visual Arts
- Communication Studies
- Consumer Services
- Cultural Studies
- Curative Health
- Design Studies
- Early Childhood Development
- Earth and Space Sciences
- Electrical Infrastructure Construction
- Engineering and Related Design
- Environmental Relations
- Environmental Sciences
- Film Television and Video
- Finance, Economics, and Accounting
- Social Sciences
- Generic Management
- Higher Education and Training
These are the courses NSFAS will not cover:
- Postgraduate qualifications
- Part-time studies
- Private institution courses
- A second undergraduate qualification
- Short courses
These are the requirements to be funded by NSFAS:
Universities
- Must be a South African citizen
- Must be applying or accepted at a University
- SASSA grant recipients immediately qualify
- Must have a household income below R350 000 per year
- If you're a person living with a disability, your household income must come to R600 000 or less
TVET Colleges
- Must be a South African citizen
- Must be registered or intending to register on a PLP, NC(V) or Report 191 programme at a TVET College
- Must have a household income below R350 000 per year
- If you're a person living with a disability, your household income must come to R600 000 or less
- Returning students must demonstrate proven and accepted academic performance in line with the College’s progression policy or the progression prescriptions of the Bursary Rules and Guidelines
- Must not be enrolling for a qualification that duplicates previous learning that was state-funded
To find out more about NSFAS, head to our NSFAS page.
