Tuesday, 31 January marked the last day for students to submit their applications for the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (Nsfas) for the 2023 academic year.
Applications for the financial aid scheme‘s funding officially closed by midnight, on 1 February, 2023, after opening for a period of four months, since 28 September 2022.
The application period was extended in order to accommodate the later-than-usual release of the 2022 matric results during January.
According to Nsfas' Chairperson, Ernest Khosa, during his speech on the scheme's state of readiness for the upcoming academic year, Nsfas has received 1,587,968 applications from potential beneficiaries.
A total of 613,909 applications have been provisionally funded, of which 338,320 are continuing students and 275,589 are new applicants.
Nsfas has also developed a new applications system that makes it easier for students to fill in and submit their applications.
The new applications system enables automated processing of received applications and ensures correct eligibility assessment. The system has multiple channels that can be used by applicants and students to access Nsfas services.
Channels activated are the Student Online Portal (Web portal), Mobile application, USSD platform and WhatsApp.
The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) has revealed a proper breakdown of the received applications and their status:
- 210,679 applications are currently being assessed in regards to financial eligibility; this is the process where funding is verified against the government 350k threshold through the use of third party data from the South African Revenue Services (SARS), which assists in validating the information provided by the applicant.
- 149,202 applications are awaiting academic eligibility. According to the Nsfas Eligibility Criteria and Conditions for Financial Aid, a student must attain prescribed academic success in order to continue to receive financial aid from Nsfas.
- 273,746 applications are awaiting evaluation. Nsfas received more than 1,6 million applications this is the highest number received in the history of the Nsfas, while immediate funding decisions have been made for qualifying SASSA students. Non-SASSA students must provide documentation to proof their household income, and Nsfas is working on verifying and confirming each of these applications based on the information provided.
- 98,805 applications have been withdrawn (these are application withdrawn by the student).
- 161,139 applications have been rejected due to not meeting funding criteria.
- 1261 appeals have already been submitted.
Nsfas provides financial aid to eligible students who come from low-income households and cannot afford the costs of higher education.
The bursary scheme covers tuition student accommodation, textbooks and other related expenses, and provides students with a monthly allowance to help with living costs.
