In 2023, the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) announced that they would start offering the NSFAS Missing Middle Loan as part of their Comprehensive Student Funding Model.
This NSFAS loan is for both undergraduate and postgraduate students and is geared towards students who don't qualify for NSFAS bursaries.
What happens when there is more than one dependent from a household qualifying for the NSFAS Loan Scheme?
Strategic Enablement Executive at NSFAS, Vuyokazi Mafilika, explained:
If the total earnings of the household remain within the R350 000 to R600,000 bracket, the addition of more than one dependent does not affect eligibility.
"As long as the total household income does not exceed the specified threshold, applicants remain eligible for funding."
Once students are approved, they would need to sign a NSFAS loan agreement. If the students perform well, up to 50% of the student loan can be converted to a bursary.
Rejected NSFAS bursary applicants will automatically be re-assessed for eligibility under the missing middle loan scheme.
NSFAS missing middle loans will have a particular emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) programmes, constituting 70% of beneficiaries. The remaining 30% will be allocated to Humanities and social science programmes.
