The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has made significant strides in supporting South African students by reintroducing its loan scheme. This initiative aims to provide financial assistance to missing middle students, a group that falls between the cracks of government-funded support.
Missing middle students, whose household incomes exceed the NSFAS threshold of R350,000, often struggle to cover the rising costs of tertiary education. The reintroduction of NSFAS loans offers a much-needed lifeline for these individuals.
The government has allocated a substantial R3.8 billion to fund this initiative, ensuring that more students can access quality higher education. While NSFAS has the capacity to support over 31,000 students, the final number of recipients will depend on the number of eligible applicants.
The last one is the inability of the board to consult on the guidelines for the missing middle funding and the related inability to implement the missing middle solutions.
"This is the category of students who come from families with an income of more than R350,000, but not more than R600,000 per annum," she said.
As of August 15, 2024, only 1,300 applicants had met the criteria for NSFAS loan funding. To maximize the impact of this initiative, NSFAS has prioritized students pursuing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields, allocating 70% of the loan funds to these programs.
The remaining 30% is intended for students studying Humanities and Social Sciences.
At least, we are hoping that 31,884 prospective learners tend to benefit out of this investment. It is my responsibility to ensure that NSFAS is efficient in executing this mandate.
"NSFAS is finalising the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) requirement as per the guidelines and it is anticipated that details of all successful applicants will be shared with Institutions not later than 5 September 2024."
