For the 2023 academic year, the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) increased students' living allowance by 10%. This comes after a three year period with no increases.
The government bursary scheme highlighted that this move does not only acknowledge the impact of inflation on students' livelihoods, but also looks to remove the burden of disadvantaged students.
Some students have shared that the high shortage of beds in some institutions continues to be a battle, and it is for this reason that some students have resorted to searching for alternative housing outside of the official residences of institutions.
However, the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) Minister Dr. Blade Nzimande said students housed in private, accredited accommodation off campus would receive an allowance capped at R45,000.
In a statement, Nzimande said he was not informed about the cap leading to students not being able to afford suitable accommodation.
This comes after university students protested due to this issue, pointing out that the R45,000 student accommodation cap makes it hard for them to find housing, hence they have called on it to be removed. A number of university Vice Chancellors also raised concerns regarding the cap.
The Scheme has informed the DHET that it plans to redirect NSFAS funded students to the more affordable accredited accommodation identified by its team of accreditors.
Higher Education has explained that the government scheme relies on the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation report for existing NSFAS data for accommodation claimed historically across all institutions, both public universities and colleges.
This is also informed by recommendations from the Ministerial Task Team report and available market data which looks at the generic student housing market.
On 20 March 2023, an emergency accommodation was offered to students, indicated Universities South Africa. In the interim, data is being collected across all 26 public universities to establish how many students have been negatively affected by the NSFAS cap and the accommodation categories they are allocated within.
