The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has made a significant breakthrough in supporting South African students by reintroducing its loan scheme. This initiative is a lifeline for missing middle students, whose household incomes exceed the NSFAS threshold of R350,000 per year, making them ineligible for government-funded bursaries.
To address this gap, the government has allocated a substantial R3.8 billion to fund the NSFAS loan scheme. This funding ensures that more students can access quality higher education, especially in critical fields like Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).
While NSFAS has the capacity to support over 31,000 students, the final number of recipients will depend on the number of eligible applicants. As of 15 August 2024, only 1,300 applicants had met the criteria for NSFAS loan funding.
To maximize the impact of this initiative, NSFAS has prioritized STEM students, allocating 70% of the loan funds to these programs.
The last one is the inability of the board to consult on the guidelines for the missing middle funding and the related inability to implement the missing middle solutions.
"This is the category of students who come from families with an income of more than R350,000, but not more than R600,000 per annum," she said.
The remaining 30% is intended for students studying Humanities and Social Sciences. This allocation aims to ensure that students from diverse academic backgrounds have access to financial assistance.
At least, we are hoping that 31,884 prospective learners tend to benefit out of this investment. It is my responsibility to ensure that NSFAS is efficient in executing this mandate.
"NSFAS is finalising the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) requirement as per the guidelines and it is anticipated that details of all successful applicants will be shared with Institutions not later than 5 September 2024."
Overall, the reintroduction of the NSFAS loan scheme is a positive step towards making higher education more accessible to South African students. By providing financial support to missing middle students, NSFAS is helping to bridge the gap between those who can afford tertiary education and those who cannot.
