Students funded by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) are assisted with essential costs such as registration fees, tuition fees, study material expenses, food allowance, incidental/ personal care, as well as accommodation or transport.
NSFAS allowances increased by 10%, but the government bursary scheme has shared that its student accommodation cap remains at R45,000.
Minister of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Blade Nzimande has explained:
NSFAS did research last year with accommodation service providers and came to the conclusion that they won’t pay more than R45 000.
According to the government scheme, the accommodation cap should be able to afford bachelors or a room in a decent place.
The Scheme spends R11 billion in student accommodation for students in public universities and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges.
Should students be given money to navigate accommodation themselves will lead to NSFAS not being able to trace or determine if the money has been used on accommodation.
It is for this reason that Nzimande has emphasised that this is not a grant but rather the money is strictly for the education of the student that is the government bursary recipient.
Both the university and TVET sectors are faced with the challenge of placing students, as more than 300 000 students are in need of beds.
