As with each new year, The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has received a handful of applications from students looking for academic funding.
NSFAS has kick-started 2023 with almost 500 000 applications submitted from all of South Africa's nine provinces.
Despite this large number, some applications were also withdrawn. Approximately 29 036 applications across the country were removed from the NSFAS online applications website. Students have the opportunity to resubmit after withdrawing their application, as long as they resubmit before the closing date.
The province of KwaZulu-Natal had the highest total of submitted applications, but over 6000 applications were withdrawn.
Just over 4000 students sent in their applications from the Northern Cape; 253 applications were withdrawn.
Amongst other high figures, almost 70 000 students received immediate funding from the financial aid scheme. Of those 70 000, the highest immediately-funded students once again came from the KwaZulu-Natal province.
The lowest immediately-funded group of students was 505 from the Northern Cape and 6 from an "Unknown Province".
NSFAS is actually planning for a hassle-free and delay-free 2023 academic year. The scheme predicts that they will see a 7% increase in the number of students funded, compared to last year.
According to NSFAS, students will be paid their allowances during the first months of the new year. The scheme made provision to the tune of R3.5 billion for the payment of student allowances between February and April 2023.
They also said they will pilot the direct payment of allowances to students at three universities. Other institutions may apply to NSFAS for exemption from this payment solution, on the condition that they have efficient processes and systems for disbursing allowances to students.
