Bid to avoid admission disruptions
Department and NSFAS to work hand-in-hand
The government has vowed to minimise disruption from last minute “walk-in” applications for places at Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) colleges in 2019.
Higher education and training minister Naledi Pandor said this will be part of proactive measures taken in collaboration with the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS). “We will be far more proactive than we might have been in the past,” said Pandor, who took charge of the portfolio in February when President Cyril Ramaphosa reshuffled cabinet. “We will maintain a strong presence both of ... DHET [the department] and NSFAS on college campuses where we think help may be required. At the beginning of the year we will meet with TVET college principals as well as new student leadership to brief them on how they may assist, to ensure we don’t have long queues and clashes in those queues,” she said. NSFAS only disburses funding after students are registered at a university or TVET college.
NSFAS warned last week that there had been so few funding applications from aspirant TVET college students that it expected about 200 000 prospective students to attempt walk-in registration at the start of the 2019 academic year.
At that stage, only 10% of its funding applications were from students hoping to study at a TVET college.
NSFAS administrator Randall Carolissen said there had been a last-minute surge in applications from students aiming for TVET colleges at the weekend, which would alleviate some of the pressure facing the sector in January. When the extended application period closed at midnight on Sunday, the proportion of those received for TVET college courses had risen to 24%, he said. NSFAS originally set November 30 as the deadline for applications for the 2019 academic year, but then extended it by two days. Pandor said the application process for 2019 had gone smoothly, and that she did not anticipate the kinds of delays in disbursing NSFAS funds to students as in the past. NSFAS had received more than 400 000 applications for 2019. “NSFAS will communicate to students who meet the financial eligibility criteria and have received an academic offer via SMS or e-mail at the beginning of January, once academic results have been made available to NSFAS,” she said.
NSFAS will only contact students who meet criteria