NSFAS 2019 applications open
WHILE the 2019 National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) applications for new applicants is set to open today, NSFAS is also expected to begin disbursing outstanding funds due to students.
According to Sol Plaatje University Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Professor Yunus Ballim, there are around 930 students at the university in the 2018 academic year who have been approved for NSFAS funding.
“We have received 70% of the funding from NSFAS,” Ballim said on Friday. “These students have all received their allowances as appropriate and are suitably supported.”
He added that it was expected that the remaining 30% of the funds would be paid by NSFAS in the coming months, before the end of 2018.
“There are about 220 first-year students in the current year who have applied but have yet to be assessed by NSFAS to check if they qualify for funding,” Ballim pointed out further, stating that no funding had arrived to support these students.
“However, where we have identified students with a particular need we have been allocating SPU funds to provide them with allowances for books, meals, etc as appropriate, on the understanding that NSFAS will approve their support and then pay the funds to SPU.”
He stated that the list of these students reduced at two-week intervals as NSFAS completes its assessments and notifies the university of approvals or otherwise.
“We remain positive that funding decisions about this group of students will be properly resolved over the next few weeks.”
Ballim pointed out that the remaining 400 students at SPU were either self-funding or funded with other bursaries and scholarships obtained from the corporate community, the Seta’s and other provincial or national government student funding programmes.
“We have around 110 students who have historical debts with SPU (2017 and earlier), who qualified for NSFAS support in earlier years but were not funded at the time. NSFAS has committed to settling these debts and they are in the process of confirming that the students satisfy the requirements at the time. This is mainly for the 2017 academic year as NSFAS has already transferred the funds for earlier historical debts. We are in discussion with NSFAS to receive these funds. In the meantime, the debt is being carried by the respective students.”
The Minister of Higher Education and Training, Naledi Pandor, announced at the end of last week that the applications for NSFAS funding for next year would open today, following an earlier meeting between herself and NSFAS administrator, Dr Randall Carolissen, in Cape Town.
According to the announcement by Pandor, the decision to open the applications was taken after a process of testing the 2019 applications with a focus group of high school pupils yielded positive results in terms of accessibility and user friendliness.
“NSFAS has put in place a comprehensive communications plan, which involves partnering with institutions of higher learning and training, the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), community structures and organisations to ensure that all eligible students are reached,” a statement issued by the Department of Higher Education and Training yesterday stated.
“Once a student has applied to NSFAS, a maximum waiting period before getting a notice of acknowledgement is a week. Should a student not receive the acknowledgement, they are requested to call NSFAS’s toll-free call centre on 08000 NSFAS (67327).
NSFAS has meanwhile deployed staff to all institutions to facilitate the process of addressing the bottlenecks that have resulted from a range of factors.
The department stated yesterday that the necessary funds were available and steady progress was being made in getting the student support to the qualifying students.
“NSFAS has welcomed the enormous support from institutions and student representative councils (SRCs) at universities and TVET colleges in clearing bottlenecks to the disbursement of funds,” it added.
The support of the institutions and SRCs has been to assist NSFAS to ensure that students have completed and signed the necessary agreements; these agreements, and the student’s course codes have been captured by the institutions and submitted to NSFAS; and book allowances, s-Bux, and pre-funded student details are correctly captured and matched with NSFAS records.
According to the department, of the 273 000 first-time entering students at TVET colleges and universities, a total of 211 000 have received the relevant funds, while close to 239 000 of the 241 000 returning students have been successfully linked to the system.
“Students are urged to sign outstanding NSFAS bursary agreements to ensure that their 2019 application proceeds smoothly.”
The department further expressed confidence that the remaining and outstanding payments were being made as rapidly as details were being captured and verified.
Students who are receiving their backdated funds were encouraged to use them wisely to settle outstanding arrears.
The NSFAS has for years battled to manage applications for funding while collecting on outstanding student loans, and then buckled under the extra demands created by former president Jacob Zuma’s surprise announcement in 2017 that students from poor and working-class families would be entitled to free higher education from 2018.
Thousands of students have faced delayed payments, prompting protests at tertiary institutions earlier this year.
Pandor placed the scheme under administration earlier in August and appointed Carolissen as administrator.