Minister Blade Nzimande has confirmed that the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has received a total of 906 429 applications for the 2022 academic year, out of which 85% were first-time applicants.
Nzimande was speaking at a media briefing on the state of readiness for the Post School Education and Training sector for the 2022 academic year on Tuesday.
He stated that all Sassa Beneficiaries who applied for NSFAS funding were among the first to receive feedback on their applications for 2022. The minister also confirmed that the Department will be able to fund all qualifying students that have been approved in government-funded programmes in public universities.
The government has contributed R1.7 billion to NSFAS and the due diligence exercise that was undertaken in 2018 towards the historic debt of registered NSFAS funded students.
The undertaking was targeted towards debt relief for qualifying students registered before 2018 whose combined household income did not exceed R120 000.
The minister further stated that NSFAS funded students who were admitted before 2018 owe more than 5.3 billion.
In addition to this, the Higher Education Department is also developing recommendations for a comprehensive student financial aid model as a means to address issues relating to financial aid and student debt.
Nzimande says that the model will incorporate existing funding from the state as well as other alternative sources of funding.
He added that a ministerial task team appointed last year is due to publish a report on the development of a new student financial aid within the first half of 2022.
The ministerial task team has also engaged the Banking sector to develop an affordable loan scheme for students who do not meet NSFAS eligibility criteria.
