The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has officially opened its application season for funding for the 2024 academic year until January 31, higher education, science and technology minister Blade Nzimande said on Tuesday.
Briefing the media, Nzimande said NSFAS has been working tirelessly to ensure that it improves on its processes for applications and ensuring quick turnaround times on funding decisions in preparation for the 2024 funding year.
As part of improving the services to prospective applicants, there will be no supporting documents required at the time of application.
“The reason for this is due to our improved third-party relations. These third parties include Sassa, Sars and the department of home affairs. They will be providing NSFAS with information to verify what the student would have declared in the application.
“The only time supporting documents will be required, is when prompted by NSFAS in cases where they cannot verify the parental relationship. Communication will be sent directly by NSFAS to a student to initiate this process,” Nzimande said.
NSFAS opens applications for tertiary education funding for 2024
Image: Freddy Mavunda
The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has officially opened its application season for funding for the 2024 academic year until January 31, higher education, science and technology minister Blade Nzimande said on Tuesday.
Briefing the media, Nzimande said NSFAS has been working tirelessly to ensure that it improves on its processes for applications and ensuring quick turnaround times on funding decisions in preparation for the 2024 funding year.
As part of improving the services to prospective applicants, there will be no supporting documents required at the time of application.
“The reason for this is due to our improved third-party relations. These third parties include Sassa, Sars and the department of home affairs. They will be providing NSFAS with information to verify what the student would have declared in the application.
“The only time supporting documents will be required, is when prompted by NSFAS in cases where they cannot verify the parental relationship. Communication will be sent directly by NSFAS to a student to initiate this process,” Nzimande said.
WATCH | Nzimande, NSFAS brief media on 2024 funding applications
He said NSFAS applications were open now because NSFAS had been waiting for Sars’ completion of the tax period to enable NSFAS to have updated information available during the application season.
“We check applications against Sars to ensure the scheme is not robbed, people claiming to be looked after by grannies when parents are there and earning enough.
“Furthermore, this is done to afford the beneficiaries shorter turnaround times for decision making, which is aligned to NSFAS financial eligibility assessment which requires updated Sars information.”
Nzimande said matric students should not wait until they receive their results before they apply.
He said since since 1991, NSFAS funding has grown from disbursing R21.4m to almost R48bn to fund children of the working class and the poor seeking to further their studies in public universities and TVET (technical and vocational education and training) colleges.
In this financial year, NSFAS is funding 1.6-million students.
TimesLIVE
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