NSFAS changes course pass criteria

Students who fail to obtain a 60% course average will no longer receive financial aid starting from next year.

This was announced by the minister of higher education and training, Blade Nzimande, who was addressing the media on Tuesday on the readiness of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) and universities amid university registration week commencement. 

“Continuing and first time entering university students must achieve a course credit pass rate of 60% for the end of the 2024 academic year to succeed academically for 2025 funding year,” he said.

"TVET college students must note that a bursary may only be awarded to them when they progress to the next national certificate level if they passed at least five subjects in the previous national certificate level."

Nzimande said to date, NSFAS has received 1,545,822 applications as of January 21, for this academic year. Of these 657,703 were Sassa recipients who have been provisionally funded. He said NSFAS anticipates additional applications before the close of this year's application cycle on January 31.

The fund owes millions to some universities and the debt that spans as far back as 2017. It is also owed more than R40bn by previous beneficiaries.

Nzimande said in the current financial year, the scheme has recovered in excess of R110m and with the assistance of the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), they have secured R4m worth of acknowledgements of debt from former beneficiaries.

“To date, the SIU has secured acknowledgements of debt to the value of over R4m from individuals and over R38m from institutions of higher learning. Further to this, the SIU has recovered over R58m from institutions and these funds are being held in trust at the SIU. NSFAS and SIU are engaging on the processes to return these funds", he said.

“I therefore want to appeal to students to come forward and be counted by making the necessary arrangements to commence or continue making payments in honour of the conditions of the previous loan scheme. This will ensure the sustainability of our loan scheme.”

He said while recoveries were currently stable, however, a lot could be done in this area to augment on the funding currently provided annually from the government if the recoveries are improved.

Regardless of its challenges, NSFAS funding has grown from disbursing R21.4m in 1991 to almost R48bn in 2023.

In November, acting CEO of the scheme told the portfolio committee on higher education that more than 80,000 students would be affected as a result of a 10% budget reduction by Treasury.

NSFAS spokesperson, Ishmael Mnisi, said the budget cut would have an impact on the intake of this year’s students. 

“The exact number of the reduction is not clear. That would be determined by the budget when it comes from Treasury, but a cut in budget would mean we have to reduce the intake.”

Sibiyan@sowetan.co.za