The Ikusasa Student Financial Aid Programme (ISFAP) opened their ISFAP bursary applications for the 2025 academic year on 3 June and closed at the end of October. In total, ISFAP received 70 121 applications.
ISFAP offers to fund missing middle students with undergraduate and postgraduate bursaries. Missing middle students are those who won't qualify for NSFAS as they exceed the annual household income threshold but aren't able to afford their fees without assistance.
ISFAP announced:
Over 70,000 students have applied for the ISFAP bursary! Thank you to everyone who submitted their applications. Stay tuned for updates on your application status!
The organisation revealed that for 2025, they received 60 016 undergraduate funding applications and 10 105 postgraduate funding applications.
ISFAP Funding Application Timeline
After closing ISFAP 2025 applications on 31 October, ISFAP revealed that soon they will evaluate these applications. On 16 December, the organisation will verify the household income information provided by applications.
Once that process is completed, ISFAP will verify matric results on 23 January. Matric results are set to be released on 16 January 2025.
From 23 January 2025, ISFAP will commence with confirming student registration at universities. It's important to remember that ISFAP will not cover student registration fees.
Once ISFAP has completed evaluation processes, they will then confirm who was approved for funding. From 28 February, ISFAP will start releasing funding offers to students and they will receive their funding contracts.
What ISFAP Funding Covers
The ISFAP funding structure has tuition built into it, accommodation, living allowances, textbooks and laptops.
So how we supply all these is based on the budgets, the funding available from our donors, as well as the caps which we apply to the different pockets that we make available to the student.
They also provide wraparound support that they "make available to the students where they're able to get social skills, they're able to get study assistance, we try and support the students on a more well-rounded structure".
"You are supported not just financially, where your mental health matter, where if you need guidance in terms of tutoring and mentoring, there's that space."
Applicants are urged to keep an eye on their email for any updates.
