NSFAS Funding Eligible Meaning
If you've submitted your NSFAS application, you would then regularly check your NSFAS application status by logging into myNSFAS.
You will then be told on what stage your application is on.
Checking Funding Eligibility - Assessing Financial Eligibility
What does Funding Eligible mean for NSFAS?
So what does it mean when it says your NSFAS application is 'Funding Eligibility'?
Funding Eligibility means that NSFAS is verifying your household financial status that was declared in your application.
To be eligible for funding from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme the family income from your household needs to be less than R350 000 per year. NSFAS can check with the SARS database and the Home Affairs database to see how is registered as your parents and how much they earn.
Many people have been caught out before as they have lied on their application and said that their parent's income is lower than R350,000. But then NSFAS checked with SARS and saw that it was higher so cancelled their funding - leaving them owing the university or college all of the money!
Application Approved Funding Eligible
The next message you will hopefully receive is Application Approved Funding Eligible. This means that NSFAS has approved you for funding as they have confirmed that you meat the criteria. However the money isn't paid to you, it is paid to the college or university that you study at. So the next step is to be accepted at a college or university. Once you have been accepted and registered that money for tuition fees will be paid from NSFAS to the institution.
NSFAS funding is the most popular student funding scheme because it covers your tuition fees, accommodation, living expenses and study needs.
Some people will need to upload supporting documents with their NSFAS bursary application but most won't need to.
My NSFAS status is Funding Eligible - what does Funding Eligible mean?
If you have been informed that your status is Funding Eligible then that is great news. That means that you can receive NSFAS funding for your studies. However this is not the end of the journey. You do not receive the cash yourself - the funding money is paid to the university or college you are registered to.
So if you are eligible for funding you still need to apply for a place at a college or university. Then when you are accepted you need to register at the institution. When NSFAS received confirmation from the college or university that you are registered there they will transfer the money for your tuition fees over to the institution and they will start paying your allowances to you directly.
