How NSFAS is transforming lives
National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) was established to enable poor students who would not otherwise be able to attend college and university to access higher education. NSFAS chief executive Andile Nongogo describes this student funding scheme as “the single-most successful, transformative programme of government in terms of changing people’s lives”.
Sitting down with Mail & Guardian, Nongogo explained this statement by noting that in taking a person to school, you afford them the opportunity to find employment or start their own business. This empowers them to change their circumstances.
But doing this work isn’t simple. Combine the impact of the pandemic, with the knock-on effects of last year’s unrest and the global economic downturn and what you have is a lot of people who have fallen on hard times.
“Even people who would have been able to afford to send their kids to school are finding it difficult. This increases the demand for students to be funded by the government,” he outlined.
One of the biggest challenges NSFAS faces is around available funding versus the demand for funding. While NSFAS has established some stability by making strict funding provisions for the next three years, Nongogo admitted that the question of sustainability remains. This is why Higher Education and Training minister Blade
Nzimande has established a task team to look into the future of NSFAS and to explore alternative funding models.
Nongogo cited accessing the data they need to make the right funding decisions, quickly, as another administrative hurdle. To qualify for NSFAS funding, the household income needs to be below a certain threshold.
“The most credible source we can get for household income is Sars data. But the timing of tax data being available and the exchange of data between Sars and NSFAS tends to be an issue. Similarly, to verify whether or not a student or beneficiary is who they say they are, you need a link to the Home Affairs database.” This can also prove complicated.
Once a funding decision is made, the money isn’t awarded immediately. NSFAS needs confirmation of a student’s registration before they can pay the funds.
Over the course of the two-day AAHEFA conference it was clear that NSFAS’S challenges are not unique, which is why events like these are so valuable because they bring people together to come up with solutions to common problems.
Nongogo cited a recent trip to Nairobi prior to the conference as a prime example of why it’s important for different funds and financing schemes to collaborate. During this trip, he and his team learned more about how Kenya’s Higher Education Loans Boards (HELB) is using technology to improve loan recoveries, as well as how they are encouraging people living on the outskirts of society to apply to universities.
“Engagements like this provide a platform where we can share our experiences, with the hope being to create some sort of cohesion from African governments around higher education funding policy,” he said.
As the host of the 2022 event, Nongogo believes that the success of the event depends on deriving value beyond the conference and demands that the attendees be very deliberate about action and what they hope to get out of it.
“If we look at the theme of the 2022 conference; it’s around the sustainability of higher education financing institutions. One thing is clear – our governments have almost reached their maximum
in terms of funding,” he says, noting that they need to ask the right questions to come up with ideas to address this issue.
Questions include: Where else do we go to raise funds? Are we funding the right qualifications to support our respective economies?
For Nongogo, if the conference can provide answers to questions like these, it will have been a success.
“As NSFAS, part of our mandate is to advise the minister on matters affecting student-funding policy. And we hope to take some of the lessons we’ve learned at this event and use these to shape future policy.”