- The Department of Higher Education confirmed the applications opened as of 28th September.
- For the 2022 academic year, 985 672 applications were received with 140 636 of them being unsuccessful.
- The online application portal has also been redesigned to be more user friendly.
Earlier this week, Higher Education Minister, Dr Blade Nzimande confirmed that the 2023 cycle of the National Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) is now open.
The scheme aims to assist students planning to study during the upcoming academic year with necessary funding for costs like tuition, accommodation, food, travel and books. This funding is also intended for those who are currently studying at, or indeed plan to study at a TVET college or public university in South Africa.
The Department of Higher Education also advised the following criteria in order to be eligible for selection:
- “You are SASSA grant recipients or
- Your combined household income is not more than R350 000 per year or
- If you are a person living with a disability, your combined household income should not be more than R600 000 per year or
- If you are a student who begun their university studies before 2018 and their household income is not more than R122 000 per year.”
With the application process of previous years fraught with stress and anxiety, Nzimande says that the portal for this year’s applications has been streamlined to be more user friendly.
To that end he noted that the NSFAS online application portal was redesigned to be like other platforms that prospective applicants are accustomed to such as WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Given that these platforms suffer from design issues in their own right, hopefully the department took only the best parts of those respective platforms in its portal redesign.
“Over and above the enhancements, NSFAS developed additional channels of application to cater for applicants from diverse backgrounds, also keeping in mind that most of the prospective applicants are young people who embrace the digital way of doing things,” he highlighted.
Among the newly added channels are a mobile app, USSD and WhatsApp, where students can apply for funding, track application statuses and cancel applications.
As in previous years, however, spaces are limited, so those in need of funding are advised to do so as quickly as possible. This as the 2022 academic year saw 985 672 applications and approximately 140 636 of them being unsuccessful, according to Nzimande.
To find out about applying for the 2023 academic year, head to the NSFAS website here.
