The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) will distribute student allowances through universities for the rest of the 2024 academic year. This comes after NSFAS previously announced universities would handle payments until July 2024.
Following a meeting between Universities South Africa (USAF) and the NSFAS Administrator, Mr F Nomvalo, NSFAS has decided that university students' allowances will continue to be distributed through universities for the remainder of the 2024 academic year.
NSFAS provides comprehensive bursaries and student loans to deserving learners enrolled in approved courses at universities and TVET colleges. This includes money for tuition and registration fees as well as several allowances for food, accommodation and learning materials.
Previously, NSFAS used external service providers for allowance payments, but due to investigations into corruption and subsequent legal action, universities took over payments in April 2024.
This means NSFAS will disburse allowances to institutions, which will then distribute them to students, until the end of the 2024 academic year. The pilot accommodation process remains unchanged.
NSFAS will allocate funds to universities, who will then distribute them to students. This system applies until the end of the academic year, with universities responsible for ensuring accurate student data to avoid delays.
Institutions are urged to validate student data before disbursing allowances to ensure accuracy.
NSFAS will continue disbursing tuition fees directly to institutions.
A new allowance payment system is still under development and expected to be ready by September 2024. How this will affect future allowance distribution is unclear. More information on allowance channels for 2025 will be provided later.
Institutions must submit any cancellations for the 2024 academic year by 26 July 2024 to: [email protected]
