How bursary fund was rescued
● When Randall Carolissen was appointed administrator of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) in August 2018, it was “on the brink of collapse”.
Most students did not get funding for up to eight months of that year, “causing considerable hardship and disruption in the higher education sector”.
Carolissen, 58, said that “critical governance processes failed, there was an unfavourable organisational climate and a culture of entitlement stymied delivery”.
These were some of the reasons why higher education minister Blade Nzimande’s predecessor, Naledi Pandor, assigned Carolissen to take over the scheme, which gives bursaries to eligible students at universities and colleges. His term ends on August 20.
Carolissen was seconded to the scheme. He is head of research at the South African Revenue Service (Sars), where he manages the collection of revenue, among others.
He has proposed assisting those who matriculated in 2017 and before but failed to qualify for financial aid because their family’s annual income was above the R122,000 threshold. In 2018, this was raised to R350,000.
He said this was because of the increased “cries for help” from people who did not get a chance to study at university.
Within days of Carolissen being appointed, the scheme’s executive officer, Steven Zwane, resigned.
It was on the first day of his disciplinary hearing amid allegations of maladministration against him.
Carolissen also upgraded security at the scheme’s Wynberg offices in Cape Town after confidential files disappeared.
“An individual was charged with disclosing sensitive NSFAS information to a third party. He pleaded guilty and was dismissed,” said Carolissen.
Under his watch, criminal and academic vetting of all staff was conducted and led to dismissals.
“We have arrested a number of people and we have also handed over about 71 cases to the Special Investigating Unit [SIU].”
Last year the scheme was criticised for scrapping the voucher system that forced students to buy textbooks from booksellers to a value of R5,000 for each student.
Under the new system, students were given R5,000 in cash for learning materials.
The Alliance for Academic Success, which included the South African Booksellers Association and the Publishers Association of SA, said at the time that book sales had dropped sharply because students were not buying books.
Carolissen said the voucher system was stopped because it was “limited to selected merchants that monopolised the market”.
“There was no financial freedom for the
We have arrested a number of people and we have also handed over about 71 cases to the Special Investigating Unit
students on where to buy books, including [from] second-hand retailers.”
The scheme also had reports of booksellers allowing students to use the vouchers to buy gifts and non-educational items.
Carolissen said Nzimande had found a bookseller that conspired with an electronics shop to have book vouchers exchanged for music centres and flatscreen TVs.
He said that of the 289,265 returning students, 30,890 would not get funding because they did not meet academic requirements or had failed to complete their courses within the specified time.
All students eligible for funding this year would receive bursaries, said Carolissen.
“NSFAS funds are provided by the National Treasury and at this stage there are no concerns around budget availability.”
This year the government will provide R34.5bn to the scheme to support students from poor and working-class backgrounds in their studies at technical and vocational education colleges and universities.
Carolissen said that, according to the department of higher education’s enrolment projections, the scheme would fund about 513,614 students at colleges and 469,978 at universities.
For the first time, the scheme will also use Sars data to verify the salaries of applicants and also to check if they have private wealth, for example income from dividends or rentals.
“You could be earning a very low salary but you could be extremely rich because you live off dividend income or rental income. In the past those things were not checked.”
According to Carolissen, R36bn is owed by 861,568 students for loans issued since the inception of the scheme in 1999.
A total of R628.6m was recovered from debtors between April 2018 and March 2019 while R1.06bn was written off as bad debts during the period.
Nzimande heaped praise on Carolissen this week, saying “there have been significant improvements in operations at NSFAS since the appointment of the administrator”.