Due to the effect of recent policy changes to the National Student, Financial Student Aid Scheme’s funding model, there have been violent student protests in some of the country’s public universities.
The impact of the newly introduced R45 000 annual price cap on student accommodation by NSFAS is the primary issue that triggered the protests, as students argued that it only makes accommodation more expensive.
Due to the price cap, some of the protesting NSFAS-funded students say that accommodation providers require them to pay the remainder of the costs. Those that have not been able to do so have been left stranded and without accommodation.
As part of an intervention to calm tensions between impacted students and other stakeholders, NSFAS management held a meeting with the South African Union of Students (SAUS) on Monday earlier this week.
Following the meeting, NSFAS and the student union agreed that they would assist each other in gathering and combining the details of students who currently do not have accommodation and as a result have no alternative accommodation.
Where necessary, NSFAS will have to take extraordinary measures to ensure that NSFAS-funded students are not left stranded due to skyrocketing accommodation costs
The scheme added that it is also engaging universities in a bid to receive credible information to fast-track the process. They are also in the process of identifying alternative accommodation providers that fall within the R45 000 price cap.
NSFAS has so far defended its capping of the accommodation costs, stating that they used a Market Assessment study by the World Bank to estimate the NSFAS price cap, Adding it will also assist in limiting fraudulent activity by accommodation providers who seek to profit from the scheme through price fixing.
In doing this, NSFAS is looking to prioritize institutions that have been the most impacted by the price cap, which include: the University Of Pretoria, the University of the Witwatersrand, Stellenbosch University, and the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal.
