The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) will assist universities that have been negatively affected by the introduction of the accommodation cap. The financial aid scheme revealed this in a recent parliamentary briefing.
In 2023, NSFAS introduced an accommodation cap of R45,000 per annum in an effort to manage unregulated costs of student accommodation. It will also seek to prevent profiteering and price collusion from private accommodation providers.
For far too long, students, parents and the government have been subjected to exploitation by service providers providing student accommodation to students. Service providers charged students exorbitant amounts for small rooms. The cap allows the government to stretch its limited resources to support more students who do not have access to funding for student accommodation.
The introduction of the accommodation cap has however not been received well by stakeholders in the sector. This is because some students feel the amount of money they are allocated is not enough and could leave them without a place to stay.
Students were not the only ones concerned regarding the introduction of the cap. Eleven out of South Africa’s 26 universities were concerned about the cap. This matter was discussed and of the 11 universities which were negatively affected, five institutions were affected more than the rest.
NSFAS started engaging with the affected institutions in an effort to find solutions for funded students that could not be placed because of the cap.
NSFAS has tried to speed up the accreditation process to ensure beds are available for students without accommodation.
The financial aid scheme defended the introduction of the cap and its amount. They explained that the R45,000 cap was not generated from thumb-sucking but through an evidence-based process.
The briefing resolved that the universities that have indicated that they would be negatively affected by the cap must be assisted in the short term while the policy instruments are being refined.
