Some public universities have announced that registrations have commenced.
To make sure that things run smoothly in the incoming months, the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (Nsfas) has shared that four Fintech companies have been appointed to assist in the disbursement of student allowances directly into relevant individuals' bank accounts.
As this is a pilot project, the University of South Africa, Fort Hare and University of Limpopo are the three institutions in the university sector that have been approached thus far.
Regarding the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) College sector, the living allowance of R6000 per annum (distributed monthly) will be introduced for Nsfas-funded students and this will be done by utilising the TVET budget allocation.
According to the new Nsfas policy, the 40km radius control for TVET College students limiting access to accommodation allowance has been removed, and a more equitable 10 km radius is introduced for both sectors for the 2023 academic year.
Nsfas intends on centralising accreditation of private accommodation and it aims to enforce compliance to the Minimum Norms and Standards for Student Housing.
The 2023 academic eligibility criteria requirement for university students will be implemented as follows:
- First Time Entering must achieve 50%+1 of their registered credits to be funded by Nsfas in the following academic term.
- Continuing and Returning Students must achieve 55% of their registered course credits to be funded by Nsfas in the following academic term.
Nsfas CEO, Andile Nongongo has shared that the government bursary scheme has predicted that it will see a 7% increase in the number of students funded, compared to the previous academic year and this increase would be "covered within the allocated budget".
