• NSFAS applicants will know the final status of their applications on 6th February 2023.
• The closing date for applications is 31st January 2023 so interested parties are urged to apply as very little time remains.
• NSFAS has launched a USSD and a WhatsApp platform for applicants interested in keeping up to date with their statuses.

Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande has said that applicants to receive financial support from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) will know of their status, whether their applications have been approved or not, by 6th February 2023.

According to the minister, this date applies to both returning and first-time students, while the funded list for continuing students was released on 24th January.

Nzimande adds that all qualifying students who have been admitted to public TVET colleges and universities on the Department of Higher Education’s bursary scheme will be funded. The government has been making a push for more students to apply for careers in technical skills and to study at TVET schools in recent months.

The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure is also awarding 70 bursaries as part of its own programme to get more young people to study courses in built environment subjects like engineering, architecture and city planning.

NSFAS applicants will be notified if they are funded or not on 6th February and in the case that their applications are unsuccessful, there will be options to appeal. These will be available on the NSFAS portal reached here.

As NSFAS applications close on 31st January, interested students who have not yet applied should follow the portal and do so. Alternatively, there are a range of open bursaries in South Africa that could also see your studies funded.

For the millions of young people that have already applied and are awaiting their status with NSFAS, the financial aid scheme has now opened a WhatsApp and a USSD platform for applicants to gain more information.

The platforms serve as methods to check your application status. For the USSD, simply dial *120*67327# and follow the instructions.

It will allow you to either check the status of your application or cancel the application.

As for the WhatsApp platform, adding the number +27 78 519 8006, we tried to utilise the WhatsApp platform, but received no reply as of the time of writing. Other users on the NSFAS Twitter account have echoed that they haven’t been able to use this platform either.

It is either not up and running yet or there are simply too many applications currently. Apparently, last Friday saw a total of 1 131 419 applications received by NSFAS online portal.

[Image – CC BY-ND 2.0 GovernmentZA on Flickr]