The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) allocated funds to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (Nsfas) to cover tuition costs for qualifying TVET college and the public university students. However, the government bursary scheme is now facing a challenge, making it difficult to release funds.
A the beginning of the 2022 academic year, the Minister of Higher Education Dr. Blade Nzimande announced that the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (Nsfas) would receive an additional budget to ensure that all eligible students who have been registered at institutions of higher learning are supported.
The government bursary scheme received an allocation with a total amount of R47,3 billion. However, there have been issues with some students not receiving their funds.
In a speech, Nzimande said:
We have found that 2 481 students have registered in more than one institution and Nsfas has received registration claims from more than a single institution.
For these individuals to rectify this, they are required to deregister in institutions that they are not studying at and submit evidence to Nsfas, thereafter, funds will then be released to the correct institution.
A funding list of Nsfas qualifying students was released to higher education institutions. The list had the names of students who qualify for the Nsfas funding, according to the Nsfas funding criteria.
For the 2022 applications funding cycle, Nsfas was reported to have received 906 429 applications.
