The National Student Financial Aid Scheme's (NSFAS) administrator Freeman Nomvalo says that students who applied for the NSFAS loan will receive their funding decisions by 15 June 2024.
NSFAS provides comprehensive bursaries and student loans to deserving learners enrolled in approved courses at universities and TVET colleges. The funding not only includes money for tuition and registration fees but also includes several allowances for food, accommodation and learning materials.
More than 1,9 millions applications were received by NSFAS for the 2024 academic year. Approximately 24,000 of these applications were received for the new NSFAS student loan.
While NSFAS confirmed funding for more than one million students who applied for NSFAS bursaries, they a taking much longer to confirm funding for individuals who applied for NSFAS loans.
Its important to note that NSFAS bursary application opened in 2023 while loan applications opened in 2024. Loan applications were open for less than one month before applications closed.
Earlier this year NSFAS confirmed they had enough money to provide approximately 31,000 missing middle student loans.
NSFAS Missing Middle Loans
NSFAS missing middle student loans was launched as part of the Comprehensive Funding Model in January by Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande. These loans are available to students who do not qualify for NSFAS bursaries but cannot afford the costs associated with higher education.
Missing middle students refer to individuals who come from households with a combined income exceeding the threshold set by NSFAS of R350,000 and don’t qualify for government-funded support. Despite exceeding the household income threshold, these students cannot afford the cost of higher education.
An important aspect of the NSFAS missing middle loans is that students enrolled in Postgraduate programmes can apply. Postgraduate students cannot apply for NSFAS bursaries which are exclusively offered to undergraduate students from poor and working class households.
