More than 900,000 students will benefit from comprehensive bursaries provided by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) during the 2023 academic year. This comprehensive funding covers tuition and registration fees as well as provides students with several allowances.
This funding ensures that students from poor and working-class backgrounds can obtain tertiary education qualifications from public universities and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges.
One of the major benefits of NSFAS bursaries is that students are not required to pay back any money. This was not the case before 2018, when NSFAS provided financial aid in the form of a loan. Before 2018, students who received NSFAS loans were required to repay the money they received to fund their tertiary education.
In a recent interview, NSFAS spokesperson Slumezi Skosana revealed that they did not have statistics on how much money is being recovered from students who are expected to pay back the money they received.
I do not have statistics on the rate at which we are recovering the money that was given as loans prior to TEFSA, metamorphosing in NSFAS.
The Tertiary Education Fund of South Africa (TEFSA) was established in 1991 and managed and administered the National Student Financial Aid Scheme since its inception in 1996. Act 56 of 1999 converted TEFSA into a statutory body called NSFAS in July 2000.
Skosana said previously the South African Revenue Service (SARS) would report individuals who were earning an income but were failing to repay their NSFAS loans. Students would pay around 5% of their salary to the financial aid scheme. They said this was very reasonable.
SARS would just report you in one way or another and you would be expected to pay back the money.
They acknowledge that there are individuals who received a study loan and are not making an effort to repay the money. The spokesperson committed to ascertaining whether money was being recovered from students who benefited from NSFAS when it was a loan.
I will just find out, to ascertain from our finance people as to whether there was money coming in from those that were obligated to pay back at the time.
Students who received NSFAS funding from the 2018 academic year are not required to repay any money to the financial aid scheme. The bursary ensures students from poor and working-class families can obtain an undergraduate qualification.
