The National Skills Fund (NSF) has confirmed that it has transferred R1 billion to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), which will help provide loans to students whose parents earn between R350,000 and R600,000 per year.
This funding allocation ensures that missing-middle students can access higher education without the financial burden that comes with the costs of tertiary education.
The NSF’s billion rand transfer comes after years of advocacy and debates around the affordability of tertiary education for South African students, especially those caught in the ‘missing middle.’
R3 Billion Funding Secured ‘Missing Middle’ Students
According to Camagwini Bomvana, the spokesperson for the NSF, this R1 billion is only part of a larger funding commitment made by the government. The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) has pledged R3 billion to support ‘missing middle’ students, which will be rolled out through NSFAS.
Bomvana explained that this funding model is aimed at addressing the financial gap faced by many middle-income families.
The NSF receives its skills levy allocation through the Department of Higher Education and Training, which serves as the source of this funding. The funding model for this initiative was approved by the cabinet under Section 291b of the Constitution.
While R1 billion has already been transferred to NSFAS, the remaining R2 billion will be paid by the DHET,
Why NSFAS Is Funding Missing Middle Students
Up until December 2017, NSFAS supported students through the provision of student loans. In 2018, NSFAS moved from providing student loans to providing comprehensive bursaries.
These bursaries were available to students enrolled in approved courses at universities and TVET colleges with a household income of R350,000 per annum.
By 2023, NSFAS was providing bursaries to approximately one million students.
However, there are many students who do not qualify for NSFAS funding but are deemed “too rich” for NSFAS funding. These students came from homes with a combined household income of more than R350,000 per annum.
In 2024, NSFAS student loans were reintroduced as part of the Comprehensive Student Funding Model. Crucially, the NSFAS student loans were aimed at assisting missing-middle students.
One of the benefits of the NSFAS student loan, besides offering more favourable terms than loans from credit providers, is that students who achieve high marks may have their total repayment amount reduced by up to 50%.
2024 NSFAS Missing Middle Funding
By 15 August 2024, 1300 applicants had satisfied the NSFAS Loan Scheme Academic and Financial Eligibility Criterion for funding. This is only a fraction of the 31,000 loans that NSFAS planned to fund.
The government bursary scheme will prioritise Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields, allocating 70% of the loan scheme to these programmes. The remaining 30% is aimed at students enrolled in Humanities and Social Sciences programmes.
