The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has finally opened applications for student funding in 2022, with an odd campaign that seems to be piggybacking off of the current drive to get people vaccinated against COVID-19.

The campaign is using the slogan “Get your shot @ NSFAS funding” which would have been innocuous on its own, but the wording is accompanied by a syringe over the letter O.

“Just like vaccines, NSFAS has made it possible for you to protect your future by giving you a shot @ higher education funding; for more conformable and smoother academic journey,” the organisation writes.

“NSFAS will, from today, November 02, 2021 open its doors for potential beneficiaries to submit their applications for funding at public universities and TVET colleges for the 2022 academic year.”

Here at Hypertext we’ve been covering the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa daily since April 2020 and we’ve seen massive improvements as vaccines were made available locally. All of our staff is fully vaccinated and we’re very much encouraging everyone to get vaccinated if they can, it’s just supremely odd that NSFAS has chosen this approach to drum up interest in applications.

Even if we put aside vaccine hesitancy there’s a lot of people who simply don’t like needles and probably would prefer not being reminded of them when acquiring funding for their studies.

We’re also a bit perplexed by the initiative in the first place. The reason applications took longer than usual to open is because the systems in place to handle them needed to be upgraded and then inspected by Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande himself. These upgrades were made in preparation of an expected high volume of applications coming in.

Applications for NSFAS funding are open until 7th January 2022. As we get closer to this date we’ll hopefully find out if the “Get your shot @ NSFAS funding” campaign is successful.

Getting a shot @NSFAS funding has never been easier, follow these simple steps and submit your application online today#NSFAS2022 #GetYourShot pic.twitter.com/GWcxX8Uigf

— NSFAS (@myNSFAS) November 2, 2021