Minister Blade Nzimande made the announcement during the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) Budget Vote on Wednesday, that NSFAS has opened its accreditation portal.
Nzimande stated that 8 196 beds have already been accredited covering the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces.
According to NSFAS, a sum of R1 750 per month has been spent on living allowances and R3 045 per academic year on personal care for distance students. Those who do not live in student residences or private accommodations qualify for transport allowances of R7 875.
The department is currently working towards the finalisation of a new Comprehensive Student Funding Model, which aims to submit the report to the Cabinet before the end of this year. Through the model, the DHET aims to introduce measures to support all the categories of students, including those not supported by the current NSFAS funding policy.
NSFAS is currently funding 1.1 million students with a budget allocation of R47.6 billion in the 2023 academic year. Universities have been allocated R38.6 billion and TVET Colleges R8.9 billion of the budget.
The NSFAS student application portal has been improved and a WhatsApp and USSD functionality has been introduced to help students track their application for 2023. The scheme also hopes to provide students with direct responses concerning their application status.
Nzimande also stated that NSFAS pays for the full cost of study, which includes full tuition and accommodation limited to R45,000 per year. Accommodation funding is limited to ensure that students are not taken advantage of by student accommodation service providers.
The review of the existing DHET-National Treasury-DBSA partnership for the delivery of the Student Housing Infrastructure Programme (SHIP) is reaching finality.
Meanwhile, a total of 8 282 beds have been delivered to the University of Western Cape, Nelson Mandela University, NorthWest University, University of Fort Hare and Vaal University of Technology.
Funding for Phase 2 SHIP projects at Gert Sibande TVET College, Majuba TVET College, Tshwane University of Technology and the University of KwaZulu-Natal has been approved and planning for these projects has started. The total budget is R2.136 billion.
Their budget for the 2023/24 financial year for the entire sector is R133.8 billion. Which has an annual average increase of 5.3%.
