Action on Nsfas student housing failures required: public protector

Public protector Kholeka Gcaleka has flagged student accommodation for urgent intervention.

This, as she found that concerns about systemic deficiencies in the administration, governance, funding, co-ordination and oversight of student financial aid are “substantiated”.

Gcaleka on Tuesday addressed a media briefing on an investigation by her office into alleged maladministration at the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (Nsfas).

She identified systemic concerns regarding student accommodation, including:

• delays in the payment of accommodation allowances;
• weaknesses in the accreditation and verification of private accommodation; and
• the resulting risks of fraud, exploitation and student housing instability.

Following in loco inspections conducted at sampled institutions, Gcaleka has resolved to conduct a separate, systemic investigation into student accommodation. She urged the government to start addressing issues surrounding Nsfas funding of student accommodation without waiting for her subsequent report.

These deficiencies have impaired its ability to discharge its statutory mandate effectively, efficiently and in a manner consistent with the standards expected of a public entity entrusted with public funds and vulnerable beneficiaries

—  Kholeka Gcaleka, public protector

Her office’s investigation into Nfsas was initiated after complaints raised about alleged administrative deficiencies affecting students’ access to financial aid and, consequently, their access to higher education.

In considering these complaints, Gcaleka said she became aware of the broader and systemic challenges confronting the higher education sector, including:

• inadequate access to funding for tuition by students requiring assistance;
• inefficiencies and maladministration within existing funding mechanisms;
• student accommodation challenges;
• funding criteria; and
• delays in the disbursement of funding allowances.

Overall, she said evidence gathered so far indicates instability and its resultant inefficiencies through students citing delays in:

• funding confirmations;
• the payment of allowances;
• the processing of appeal applications; and
• the settlement of student tuition accounts, resulting in withheld qualifications.

Nsfas’s failures were not merely technical or internal but materially affected students’ dignity, welfare and ability to participate in higher education

—  Gcaleka

Gcaleka said the information gathered during the preliminary phase of the investigation pointed to:

• persistent governance instability;
• administrative weakness; and
• inadequate systems.

In the past eight years Nsfas has been under administration three times, she noted.

“These deficiencies have impaired its ability to discharge its statutory mandate effectively, efficiently and in a manner consistent with the standards expected of a public entity entrusted with public funds and vulnerable beneficiaries,” she said.

She said the evidence establishes that students experienced recurring delays in receiving funding decisions, appeal outcomes and allowances. These delays caused direct and foreseeable prejudice, including:

• food insecurity;
• accommodation instability; and
• exposure to unsafe living conditions.

“Such outcomes demonstrate that Nsfas’s failures were not merely technical or internal but materially affected students’ dignity, welfare and ability to participate in higher education.”

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