Funding provided by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) is targeted towards students coming from poor and working class backgrounds wanting to study at a public higher education institution. With NSFAS comes a very important qualifying criteria.
An important question to consider is: Will NSFAS still fund me if I have a partial bursary from another funder? Let's look into this.
Will NSFAS still fund me if I have a partial bursary from another funder?
According to the NSFAS Eligibility Criteria and Conditions For Financial Aid, a student can still qualify for NSFAS funding even if they have a bursary which pays for their study costs partially. The financial aid scheme explains:
If a student receives a partial bursary from another source, the student and the institution must advise NSFAS of the funding conditions of the new funder within 10 days of receiving the partial bursary,the NSFAS bursary must be reduced, and any excess refunded to NSFAS during the reconciliation process.
This means that should a student have applied and been approved for NSFAS funding along with another bursary, the student should notify NSFAS and they would pay for the costs which were not covered while the rest of the NSFAS funding which remains, should be sent back to NSFAS.
The institution has until 31 July to inform NSFAS of the additional funding. This is so that NSFAS allocations are adjusted based on the amounts of other funding received. The way costs will then be covered will be that NSFAS will cover tuition, then accommodation and then any other NSFAS allowances will be paid.
They [the students] cannot receive funding for the same qualification from more than one source without notifying the institution and NSFAS.
"If the funder has specified the allocation of the financial support granted, then the excess to be returned to NSFAS is calculated on this basis," said NSFAS.
Should the student lose the bursary from another funder and NSFAS applications are closed, the student would then need to consult with their institution to apply for NSFAS funding. If the NSFAS requirements are met and the student's academic performance was not the reason behind losing funding, NSFAS would then be able to cover the full cost of study.
NSFAS will consider financial aid to these students on a ‘top-up’ basis if they are not fully funded through their bursary or scholarship. NSFAS will work with universities to ensure that these students are effectively funded and that there is no “double dipping”.
