Students enrolled at the University of South Africa (Unisa) can now access their allowances provided by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS). This comes after the university confirmed the payment of NSFAS allowances to funded students.
NSFAS provides comprehensive bursaries to students enrolled at public universities and Technical And Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges. These bursaries cover tuition and accommodation fees.
Students funded by NSFAS also receive several allowances including a living allowance, a learning material allowance and an accommodation allowance should they require it.
Unisa is South Africa’s largest university and has paid allowances to more than 90,000 students this month. This is around 10% of the more than 900,000 students being funded by NSFAS in the 2023 academic year.
Unisa has already paid out NSFAS allowances to 90 070 NSFAS students and we are in the process of finalising allowances for students who were reviewed and confirmed late by NSFAS.
The university revealed the payments of funds to students who have not yet received their allowances will be completed this week. These students received late funding confirmation from NSFAS.
We are in the process of finalising allowances for students who were reviewed and confirmed late by NSFAS.
Which NSFAS Allowances Do Unisa Students Receive?
Unisa uses an Open Distance e-Learning (ODeL) style of learning. This means that students don't attend a physical campus when attending classes. Their status as a distance learning institution also has an impact on the allowances NSFAS provides to their students.
Unisa students receive a learning material allowance and the incidental allowance. The incidental allowance is also referred to as the personal care allowance.
Allowances for returning students including the learning material allowance and the incidental allowance were disbursed from Wednesday 15 March 2023.
New students also began receiving their allowance in March 2023. Students who qualified for the incidental allowance were paid from 15 March while students who qualified for a learning allowance but did choose the laptop option could expect their allowances from 22 March 2023.
Unisa advised students that if they do not relieve their allowances by the beginning of April 2023 they must contact the institution's Division of Student Funding (DSF)
If by the beginning of April, you have not received your allowance, enquire with the Division of Student Funding (DSF) via e-mail at DSF-NSFAS [at] unisa.ac.za (DSF-NSFAS[at]unisa[dot]ac[dot]za).
The DSF administers bursaries and study loans to students according to donors' criteria. Funding administered by the DSF includes Nsfas funding and the Unisa Merit bursaries.
