National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) acting CEO Waseem Carrim has raised concerns about a stark gender imbalance in applications for the 2026 academic year.
In a presentation to parliament Carrim revealed that far fewer young men are pursuing higher education through the scheme.
Presenting the NSFAS application summary, Carrim said the data showed that 593,983 females applied compared to 299,869 males, meaning 66.45% of applicants were women while men made up just *33.55%.
“I think there needs to be considered research as to why young boys seem to be left behind on higher education programmes, because the differential is quite major in nature,” said Carrim.
He told MPs the trend is worrying and unique when compared with other government programmes.
“One is gender equality. There are far more applications from young females than there are from males. It’s not the general distribution you see on many government programmes. You can see it’s quite pronounced,” he said.
Carrim said the second concern emerging from the 2025 applications was the overwhelming preference for universities over technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges.
According to the data, almost 95% of all applications were for university study.
“Students still see university as the primary objective of pursuing higher education in South Africa, and really more needs to be done to encourage young people to apply for TVET colleges. The statistics point to young people still seeing TVET colleges as a second-class degree,” said Carrim.
NSFAS received about 893,000 applications for the coming academic year.
Carrim said the majority came from teens and people in their early 20s.
The age breakdown presented to parliament was:
- Teens: 429,823
- Twenties: 417,077
- Thirties: 41,811
- Forties: 4,526
- Fifties and above: 612
He said while many assume NSFAS is a youth-only programme it is open to applicants of all ages.
“People think NSFAS is just a youth programme. You can be any age to apply for NSFAS. We have one person who is 70 years old who is a beneficiary.”
According to NSFAS, applicants who can qualify for funding must be South African citizens or permanent residents and their combined household income must not exceed R350,000 a year.
Sassa beneficiaries automatically qualify based on financial need, and for students living with disabilities, the income threshold is R600,000.
The revelation that a 70-year-old applicant had qualified for NSFAS sparked debate on social media. Ditlhoriso Patience Bojosi said on Facebook: “He deserves it. He has contributed to Sars all his working life and must now enjoy the fruits of his labour.”
But Tshepo Cambridge Mogwera questioned the allocation of state resources saying: “Awarding a disadvantaged 70-year-old person a bursary is a waste of state resources but appointing a 65-year-plus as a minister is not a waste?”
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