NSFAS promises 'simplified' online application process

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has deferred the launch of the 2025 online application process to Friday, 20 September, following stakeholder engagement.

Additionally, the launch was postponed to allow the scheme to do a dry run of the online application system to stakeholders, said higher education minister Dr Nobuhle Nkabane.

The minister was speaking during the Department of Higher Education and Training’s (DHET’s) media briefing yesterday, to provide an update on the delay of the 2025 NSFAS online application process.

The financial aid scheme previously planned to go live with online applications for funding for the 2025 academic year on Monday, 16 September.

“The feedback received has already informed critical systems changes to simplify the online application process and also make it accessible to all,” said Nkabane.

An entity of the DHET, the NSFAS runs a close to R50 billion annual budget, providing financial aid to eligible students at public Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges and public universities.

According to Nkabane, the stakeholder engagement helped enrich the DHET’s understanding of matters, such as improving the performance of NSFAS and the student funding model, private student accommodation, safety and security of vice-chancellors and students, as well as TVET sector infrastructure development and ICT challenges.

“Among the interventions that we’re going to take as the department is to increase the intake of the college system by targeting one million enrolments in community colleges and 2.5 million in public and private TVET colleges by 2030.

“In relation to our universities, we will continue to diversify them based on their strengths and the needs of the communities in which they are located, by targeting 1.6 million enrolments by 2030.

“During these consultations, I have also reaffirmed our commitment to change the size and shape of our PSET [post-school education and training] system, particularly to expand the TVET college sector.”

The financial aid scheme has been beleaguered by governance issues, including IT system failures and mismanagement. The latest problem was the “undue” selection process of four fintech providers to disburse monthly allowances to tertiary students.

Challenges with business processes, IT systems, capacity and controls have been said to negatively impact the well-being of students and have caused NSFAS serious reputational damage.

In 2022, a group of tertiary students, named “Youthful Hope”, threatened a nationwide academic shutdown, as a result of frustrations with the scheme’s IT system and mismanagement.

The students claimed they had been excluded from NSFAS funding due to the online system miscalculating the number of years they had been funded by the financial aid scheme.

Past challenges aside, the minister expressed confidence in NSFAS’s ability to manage funding applications from students for the next academic year.

Nkabane stated: “Having received a presentation during these stakeholder consultations and having noted the comments received from stakeholders, I am now confident that NSFAS is ready to kick-start the 2025 online application process, effectively, this Friday, 20 September.”

In its 33-year history, NSFAS has supported more than five million beneficiaries.

Between 2019 and 2022, NSFAS disbursed R122 billion to over 2.9 million beneficiary applicants, it was revealed during the committee meeting. For TVET colleges, the figure stands at R35 billion for 1.1 million applicants, while disbursements for universities was R87 billion, to 1.8 million applicants.