Depending on the institution of higher learning, each has a set of requirements that you ought to take a look at.
It is very vital that you look for funding opportunities as other things to research for when preparing for your tertiary education.
It might happen that you don’t qualify for an internal bursary from the university, it's best that you do your research as you might find that there’s a company that you meet the requirements of.
In a live interview on Newsroom Africa, acting head of student recruitment at Stellenbosch University, Magdel Pretorius said:
A lot of our internal funding donors and also the company funding is specifically earmarked, not exclusively but they do really look at assisting students who form part of the missing middle because we know that NSFAS takes care of the students in the category below R350 000.
While searching for bursaries online, institutions in which these bursaries are applicable will be enlisted, the same goes for funding in international institutions of higher learning.
If you may be in a position of being a permanent residency holder or have refugee status, most of those applications for funding would go through the university's international office but there are some funds earmarked to assist those students who cannot apply for NSFAS or any other institutional funding because in some instances, it is linked to South African citizenship.
Besides academic achievements, there is another set of bursaries that you might qualify for should you not meet the academic requirements. For instance, sports bursaries which are based on an individual's sports achievement.
There are even some donors that cater to persons who belong to a certain geographical area or municipality.
