A number of bursaries exist in South Africa for prospective and existing students who intend on pursuing a tertiary qualification but need the financial assistance to do so.
It is for this reason that the Ikusasa Student Financial Aid Programme (ISFAP) was established as a funding model to sustainably cater for the higher education sector’s needs and costs of South Africa’s poor and middle-class students in institutions of higher education.
In this programme, the government and the private sector have come together to fund students and help address issues of sustainable employment in the country's post-qualification.
If you are wondering if you can be funded twice by the bursary, ISFAP CEO, Morné Du Toit has clarified that a student will not be funded more than once.
Du Toit added that the need for funding is too much and it won’t be fair to fund the same student twice.
Although this is the case, in a statement, it has been confirmed that ISFAP mainly funds students who are pursuing their studies towards a career in Occupations of High Demand, which has also been identified as critical to South Africa’s economic development by the Human Resources Development Council.
This includes students pursuing a career in Actuary, Accountancy, Engineering, Medicine, Pharmacy and Prosthetics.
ISFAP bursary recipients are provided with the following:
- Full university Fees, paid in full
- Accommodation*
- Books*
- Meals Stipend*
- Cash allowance
- Academic (tutorials; academic development & extended programmes)
- Social support
- Life skills training
- Mentoring (first year experience)
- Medical support (psycho-social support)
- Access to dedicated programme managers
- Use of an online student platform to track individual academic progress
Whilst ISFAP-funded students benefit from more than just financial assistance, the Programme has a cap for student accommodation, books, and meals stipend.
Some Higher Education sector experts are of the opinion that to grow the country’s skills base, students from poor and middle-income families need to be supported to benefit the South Africa’s economy.
It is for this reason the government also funds financially deserving students through the National Student Financial Aid Scheme with the aim of reaching as many students as possible.
