With more than 1 million beneficiaries, the National Student Financial Aid Scheme is easily recognized as one of the most accessible state-funded bursaries for historically disadvantaged tertiary students.
However, ever since its conversion to a full bursary, the scheme has undergone a series of changes to its disbursement process. Let’s break down the scheme’s current funding process.
Disbursement of Allowances
Prior to the current academic year, NSFAS monthly student allowances were distributed to a funded student’s respective university or TVET college. The institution would then have to pay the funded student.
This, according to NSFAS CEO, Andile Nongogo presented a challenge for the scheme because institutions would not pay students on a set date, which would result in frequent payment delays.
To remedy this, NSFAS adopted a direct payment model through which students receive their allowance payments using their bank accounts.
The NSFAS Bank account was introduced as part of the scheme’s collaborative initiative with third-party financial service providers, Coinvest, Tenet Technology, eZaga and Norraca using their NSFAS Bank cards.
Accommodation Disbursement
For university students, NSFAS used to pay for student accommodation as per the actual costs charged by the university, with the condition that costs for private accommodation must not exceed costs for university residents.
However, this changed when NSFAS introduced a R45,000 price cap on student accommodation. The Higher Education Department went on to say that this was based on a study titled “Market Assessment: The Student Housing Landscape in South Africa” by the World Bank. NSFAS also stated that its part of their effort to prevent price fixing among accommodation providers.
Students without accommodation, who live up to 40 km from their institution also receive a transport allowance of R7,500 a year, a living allowance of R15,000 a year, and an annual book allowance of R5200. There is also an annual incidental/personal care allowance of R2900 for students who live in catered residences.
For TVET College Students, the disbursement of allowances is broken down in the following way:
- Accommodation in an urban area is R24,000 per annum
- Accommodation in a peri-urban area is R18,900 per annum
- Accommodation in a rural area is R15,750 per annum
- Transport (up to 40 km from the institution) R7,350 per annum
- Transport R7000 per annum
- Incidental/personal care allowance R2900 per annum.
It is also worth noting that NSFAS also abides by its annual R45 000 annual accommodation price cap for TVET Colleges.
