Universities are bracing for a fresh wave of protests as student registration kicks into high gear this week. The tension on the country's campuses is set to be further fuelled as thousands of students failed to get funding from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme despite qualifying. This comes amid the call for free higher education in South Africa.Early indications of a new funding crisis are:• At Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in the Eastern Cape, only 3036 of the 5816 who qualified for NSFAS funding will receive it. The 2 780 who would not receive funding includes 1 108 first-year students;• At Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University in Pretoria only 476 of the 802 qualifying students will receive funding if each is awarded the full NSFAS amount of R71800;• Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria will only be able to assist about 14 000 of the 36 500 students who applied for funding. It will need a further R200-million to assist an expected 6000 students who qualify for funding; and• North-West University can fund just more than 825 of its 9000 first-year students from its R190-million NSFAS allocation, which also has to cover returning students.block_quotes_start Several universities appear to have bent over backwards to help cover some of the desperate students block_quotes_endDebbie Derry, spokeswoman for Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, said it would help the 2780 students who would not get NSFAS funding with their upfront payments of between R4300 (for a diploma) and R6200 (for a degree) to secure registration. These amounts had to be paid beforehand.She said payments due this year by students who had outstanding debt for last year would be waived.Louis Jacobs, spokesman for North-West University, said: "We definitely cannot assist all first-year students who qualified for NSFAS."story_article_left1Martin Viljoen, spokesman for Stellenbosch University, said its NSFAS allocation was not enough to help all the students whose gross total family income was less than R20000 a month."Stellenbosch University makes institutional funding available to assist the rest of the students who did not receive NSFAS funding."Applications for NSFAS funding this year include 14800, of whom 4800 are first-years, at the University of Limpopo; 8989, of whom 4310 are first-years, at North-West University; 5417 at the Mangosuthu University of Technology; 4800 at the Durban University of Technology; 14600 at the University of the Witwatersrand; 1733 at Rhodes University; 4500 at the Vaal University of Technology; 3107 at the University of Cape Town, and 13500 at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.UKZN spokesman Lesiba Seshoka said the university would be able to assist a further 12188 students with financial aid worth R366.3-million from its own bursary and scholarship funds as well as from external bursary funds and the National Research Foundation's scholarship fund.Meanwhile, several universities appear to have bent over backwards to help cover some of the desperate students.Rhodes University vice-chancellor Dr Sizwe Mabizela has agreed to "stand surety" for students who have made sound academic progress but cannot afford to pay their fees.It has also scrapped the old 50% upfront fee payment.story_article_right2The Vaal University of Technology has reduced the minimum payment required before registration from R3000 to R2000.The Cape Peninsula University of Technology launched a scholarship programme this year with R4-million in the kitty and the institution has vowed not to boot out any academically deserving student for nonpayment of fees.Wits is dishing out transcripts to those students who owe the university less than R15 000 and who completed their degrees last year, in a bid to help them to find jobs."Currently more than 500 generous corporate, government, trust and foundation and individual sponsors and donors support more than 11000 students on some form of scholarship or bursary," it said in a statement.On Friday, Wits obtained an interim court order in the High Court in Johannesburg preventing anyone from unlawfully occupying Senate House or other offices, buildings, facilities or lecture halls.This comes after disruptions by protesters during student registrations this week.NSFAS CEO Msulwa Daca said a greater number of first-year students would be covered by the fund this year.He said he did not believe that the entire R2-billion that the government had set aside to help 71753 students - previously underfunded or unfunded - would be used for them and that some of this money could be used for first-year students.This week, President Jacob Zuma announced the terms of reference of a commission of inquiry to investigate - among other things - the feasibility of providing higher education for free.govenderp@sundaytimes.co.za..