The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) provided comprehensive funding in the form of bursaries and student loans to underprivileged South African students.
Several courses at Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) College are also funded by NSFAS.
Here’s The Courses NSFAS Funds at TVET Colleges
NSFAS funds Ministerial approved programmes and students must refer to each college, however, the generally funded programmes are below:
- Engineering Studies - (National Certificate -Vocational) NQF levels 2-4 & Engineering studies - Report 191 N1-N6
- Engineering and Related Design; Electrical Infrastructure; Civil Engineering Construction and Information Technology & Computer Science
- Business & Utility Studies (National Certificate – Vocational) NQF levels 2-4 & Report 191 N1-N6
- Management; Marketing; Finance; Office Administration; Economics & Accounting; Education & Development; Hospitality; Tourism; Safety in Society and Transport & Logistics
- Pre-Learning Programme (PLP) funding through NSFAS
Who Qualifies For NSFAS
- Be a South African citizen.
- Need financial assistance
- Have a combined gross family income of up to R350,000 per annum for a bursary and R600,000 for a NSFAS student loan.
- Not be enrolling for a qualification that duplicates previous state-funded learning.
- Returning students must not exceed the N+Rule.
For returning students, NSFAS funding is only available if they meet the academic progression criteria:
- For NC(V) students, they must have passed at least five subjects in the previous level to progress to the next.
- For Report 191 students, they must have passed at least three subjects in the previous N-Level.
It is also important to note that the NSFAS N+Rule applies to TVET college students' academic terms. The N+ Rule allows for one additional NSFAS-funded academic term to be repeated at any level.
However, this rule does not apply to occupational programmes, which are aligned with employment contracts and do not accommodate the N+1 period of study.
Occupational programme students can only be funded for tuition fees for the duration of their qualification, and allowances may be considered subject to specific eligibility clauses.