A few months ago, Higher Education Minister, Dr. Blade Nzimande announced that the funding application cycle for the 2023 academic year will be opened early to allow students to get enough time to submit their applications and supporting documents.
Nzimande also revealed the government bursary scheme’s intention to continually improve its online applications systems. This comes after years of tertiary students complaining about the glitches faced by the Scheme’s application system.
In a parliamentary portfolio meeting with the relevant stakeholders in the Higher Education sector, Nsfas CEO, Andile Nongongo has announced:
Alternative applications channels will be released once they have stabilised, and all issues picked up have been addressed.
This comes after the Nsfas online application portal had been redesigned to be more user-friendly and closer to other platforms that prospective applicants are accustomed to; these alternative channels include WhatsApp, mobile app, USSD.
It will take approximately any from two up to six weeks before these platforms can be made available to the public, due to the number of processes that need to be followed.
Once the government bursary scheme has successfully completed its necessary tasks, it will then be able to announce that these application channels may be used.
However, in the meantime, these channels have been halted. Regarding of them being halted, Nongongo has reiterated that these channels will only be released on the condition that the new system has stabilised and teething issues have been resolved.
According to Nsfas, the new system will reduce time spent in a single application, the number of documents needed, the evaluation process and the funding decision being made quicker.
As the academic year is about to commence, almost 70 000 students have received immediate funding from bursary scheme and most of them reside in the KwaZulu-Natal province.
