The National Student Financial Aid Scheme will soon open more regional offices across the country according to Higher Education Minister, Blade Nzimande.
The Minister revealed the department’s plans for the bursary scheme during an interview with Sunday World on Thursday.
We are going to be establishing regional NSFAS offices nationally. We will start as of next year. If we can, this year.
He further stated that details regarding where these offices will be located will be established through a consultation process between NSFAS and the department.
Nzimande also noted that there are still capacity issues at NSFAS which have led to delays in the distribution of allowances and stated that the regional offices will considerably assist in handling the grievances that students have raised.
He also pointed out that, despite this the majority of NSFAS funded University and TVET College students have received the allowances, adding that the scheme bears the huge responsibility of paying R47 billion annually, which still requires the department to build more systems.
He further stated that poor communication between NSFAS and tertiary institutions forms part of the reason why there are challenges in disbursing funding allocations on time, as some of the institutions do not submit student results to NSFAS on time to confirm their funding eligibility status for continued funding.
“NSFAS says when you apply from September/October, that you do qualify for the scheme. But you won’t get it [funding] until you have passed and are admitted to an institution of higher learning.” Nzimande explained
In response to criticism towards the bursary scheme acquiring more administrative regional office space, Nzimande explained that NSFAS has been in old offices for 20 years at a time when they were disbursing R500 million.
During the time of his interview, Nzimande was attending the New Generation of Academics Programme (nGAP) Colloquium, a two-day event that features presentations by scholars who have completed the six-year programme, which is aimed at recruiting highly capable academics to public universities.
