The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) received more than 900,000 bursary applications for the 2023 academic year. The scheme wants to improve the application process by making it easier for students to apply and ensuring they can apply quickly.
NSFAS CEO Andile Nongogo says NSFAS wants to reduce the time it takes students to submit bursary applications. They believe bursary applications must not take longer than ten minutes to complete and want to reduce the time it takes to apply for NSFAS funding to five minutes.
They also want students who start a bursary application to be able to pause it, and then continue where they left off.
Currently, students apply for funding online on the NSFAS application portal. Nongogo acknowledged that some rural areas experience connectivity challenges. This may prevent individuals living in those areas from applying for funding.
They said together with the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) they will expand partners and students can apply for funding even if they do not have access to data.
NSFAS also plans to work with the Department of Basic Education (DBE) and schools to assist in the application process. This could allow students to apply for funding while they are still in school.
The scheme will also look to expand the application methods available to students in future. This may include allowing students to apply for the NSFAS bursary on Whatsapp.
Nongogo said NSFAS will also work on improving the application tracker in the coming years. This comes after the scheme acknowledged that the tracker did not work very well this year.
They said that students should be able to see how their application is progressing at every stage. The tracker was too broad, which left students confused as to why they were stuck in a stage for a prolonged period.
If a student is successful in their application for funding, NSFAS will pay their tuition and registration fees. Students will also be provided with an accommodation allowance, a living allowance and a learning material allowance.
