Funding applications for the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) have increased over the recent years. Unfortunately, there is a batch of students who will not receive funding due to a number of reasons.
However, students are afforded the opportunity to lodge an appeal and this is a request to review the bursary scheme’s decision not to fund a student who applied for NSFAS.
To be able to submit a NSFAS appeal, these are some of the documents that students are required to submit to substantiate their appeal:
- Medical certificate
- Death certificate of an immediate family member
- Academic transcript
- Payslips or more depending on the reason for declined application status
It is important to note that NSFAS applicants who want to appeal will also need to complete and download a relevant propensity letter.
Here are the propensity letters available for download:
- Failure to meet academic eligibility (PDF)
- Appealing N+1 (PDF)
- N+2 students with disability (PDF)
- Registered for 50% or less (final year course credits) to complete (PDF)
According to NSFAS, students are advised to submit relevant documents as proof of their circumstances, appeals that are supported by an affidavit will be rejected and applications without documents will not be considered.
Students ought to lodge an appeal within 30 days of receiving an unsuccessful application status. Should there be any outstanding documentation related to the appeal, students need to submit these within 14 days after which the appeal application will be closed automatically by the Scheme.
It is then the responsibility of the student to submit an appeal with supporting evidence within the prescribed timeliness.
Once the students have completed this process, they will need to track the progress of the appeal on their myNSFAS portal.
