4 September 2018 | Volume 77 | Edition 8
Are students receiving NSFAS
VARSITY investigates matters relating to UCT NSFAS students
I
n the midst of the concerning issues facing the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), UCT recently clarified that all of its NSFAS students who were awarded funding for 2017 and 2018 were not inconvenienced by the scheme’s adversities. The managerial structure of NSFAS has been rocked with the sudden resignation of Sifiso Nxasana and last week’s suspension of its CEO Steven Zwane. In the past years, NSFAS has
3 856 students are receiving financial assistance struggled to manage incoming applications for funding while simultaneously having to collect outstanding student loans. As written in a Business Day article, the scheme came under intense pressure following former president Jacob Zuma’s unexpected announcement of free undergraduate education in December of 2017. This meant that students from impoverished and working-class families would be entitled to free higher education
from 2018 onwards. Consequently, thousands of students have encountered delayed payments. According to statistics provided by the newly appointed administrator of NSFAS, Dr Randall Carolissen, the scheme owes funds to nearly 63 000 students nationwide. The majority of these students are from technical and vocational education training colleges. It has come to light that the university has been utilising its own funds in addition to those from corporate, government and philanthropic sponsors to make the necessary payments to the students. UCT has received a written agreement from NSFAS pertaining to reimbursements and will be repaid in due course.
The scheme owes funds to nearly 63 000 students nationwide. “UCTs billing system charges interest on all overdue accounts. However, NSFAS students who through no fault of their own have not settled
By Nomcebo Masilela
their accounts (due to delays from NSFAS) will have the interest manually reversed”, said Elijah Maholola, Media Liaison and Social Media manager at UCT’s Communication and Marketing department.
20 students applied for deferrals due to religious celebrations In 2017, 3 407 students were funded through NSFAS at UCT which totalled to R227.4 million in expenditure. The most recent preliminary data for 2018 confirms that 3 856 students are receiving financial assistance through the scheme – an increase of 449 students. The Rand figure for payments made in 2018 is currently unavailable. VARSITY spoke to a third-year student, currently on NSFAS. He said he hadn’t experienced any extreme delays with his allowances, but expressed his dissatisfaction with late payment charges which had to be covered by his bursary trust. With the loans being administered through NSFAS, an additional 1011 students receive UCT GAP funding. This
funding is considered for applicants whose household income does not meet the NSFAS eligibility criteria, but who still need financial assistance towards their study costs. A second year GAP funding student told VARSITY that she didn’t receive any of her allowances in 2017.” I went to their offices this year to ask why…they told me they can’t do anything as I should’ve asked those questions last year. She did, however, mention that all her 2018 allowances have been timeously sent to her. According to Maholola, the university anticipates that the number of applicants for NSFAS assistance in 2019 will increase greatly. This is as a consequence of the threshold for government financial assistance having been raised to R 350 000 annual household income. However, a recent communication by the NSFAS Twitter account appears to indicate that some students have received their allowances. The 2019 NSFAS funding applications for new applicants also recently opened on Monday, the 3rd of September.