In the 2022 academic year, classes were halted due to some students and student leaders who were not pleased with overall administration of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (Nsfas).
To make sure that the 2023 academic year start is seamless, the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) Minister Dr. Blade Nzimande has announced that the department and its stakeholders have made necessary plans to make sure that students don’t experience difficulties when registering.
Nzimande has also shared that Nsfas anticipates making upfront payments of approximately R3.5 billion at public universities and R2.7 billion Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Colleges. In a press conference, Nsfas Board Chairperson, Mr Ernest Khosa,said:
Nsfas is in a position to provide upfront payments to institutions, to allow for the payment of allowances and minimise the financial impact on institutions due to Nsfas beneficiaries not paying registration fee.
According to Nsfas, students are only allowed to register for only one qualification at one institution for the academic year.
In 2022, Nzimande confirmed that 2,481 Nsfas-funded students had been found to have done this and they had been instructed to submit evidence to Nsfas, so that funds can be released to the correct institution.
It is for this reason that students have been cautioned against duplicate registrations, and advised students that are in this situation to deregister with one institution as soon as possible because this will cause complications later.
In instances where students have additional funding, Khosa has advised them to declare this to the government bursary scheme.
Should students not declare additional funding and rectify duplicate registrations on time, this will ultimately result in delayed funding, and also in funding being stopped.
