The National Student Financial Aid Scheme, commonly known as NSFAS is a government bursary that is available to underprivileged South African students who are looking to study at a public university or TVET College in the country.
So if you're looking for funding for your tertiary studies then you should consider applying for a NSFAS bursary as they provide funding for registration, tuition and allowances. These allowances cover transport, living expenses and learning materials.
NSFAS has recently released a statement in which they have announced that they will soon be preparing for 2022 bursary applications.
"NSFAS intends to resolve any exceptions within the 2021 programme cycle as it will soon start to prepare for the 2022 application cycle," the statement read.
The requirements for the NSFAS bursary are as follows:
- Must be a South African citizen.
- Can be a SASSA grant recipient.
- Applicants combined household income is not more than R350 000 per annum.
- Persons with a disability's combined household income is not more than R600 000 per annum.
- Applicants who first registered at university before 2018 whose household income is not more than R122 000 per annum.
NSFAS currently funds 623,386 students at universities and TVET colleges across South Africa.
Once you have applied, application results will be communicated to all applicants once NSFAS received confirmation from the Institution that an academic offer has been made to you. This will be communicated to you before the start of the academic year via SMS, email and through your myNSFAS account.
Once you are approved for NSFAS funding, the funding covers you until you finish your qualification. This does however depend on whether you continue to meet the academic criteria. You just need to focus on studying and passing your modules to secure your continued funding.
As NSFAS prepares for the 2022 cycle, the financial aid scheme plans to have closed all new annual and semester 1 registrations by June 30, 2021.
