The National Student Financial Aid Student (Nsfas) opened the current funding cycle on 28 September 2022 and will close its funding online applications on 31 January 2023.
During important times of the year, full time employees of the scheme will be available at institutions around the country to provide Nsfas-funded students with assistance.
At the South African Union of Student General Council Meeting that was held at the University of Mpumalanga, the Nsfas CEO Andile Nongogo touched on how the bursary scheme plans to resolve matters affecting students.
As Nongogo was addressing the student body, student representatives and other relevant stakeholders at the university, he announced:
We are of the view that a tribunal that will be dealing appeals will be implemented in 2023.
An independent tribunal is expected to be formed to look at Nsfas appeals and also include students. This comes after appeals had been taking a while due Nsfas missing having missed details pertaining to income.
Currently, Sassa grant beneficiaries are able to receive funding decisions in real time, and Nsfas has aspirations to do this for the rest of its prospective students.
As the online application system is being improved, a Nsfas app will soon be introduced for queries and to track applications too.
The only challenge that the government bursary scheme has encountered, is trying to integrate systems with the South African Revenue Service (Sars). According to Nongogo, this is not a priority for Sars, however, Nsfas is currently trying to escalate it.
Higher Education Minister, Dr. Blade Nzimande has shared that Nsfas funding has steadily increased over the years, and has doubled over the four years, having increased from R21 billion in 2018 to R38.6 billion in 2021.
Nzimande had confirmed that a total of 586 763 TVET College students received funding in 2018, and the number of Nsfas-funded students increased to over 770 000 students in the 2021 academic year.
