The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) provides NSFAS funding to students who come from poor and working class backgrounds. Let's find out if the NSFAS bursary will cover social work courses.
The NSFAS bursary covers undergraduate qualifications which are done at any of the 26 public Universities or 50 TVET Colleges in South Africa. This means that as long as you're studying towards an undergraduate course and it's your first qualification, you'll be funded.
So the answer to our initial question of whether NSFAS will pay for social work courses is yes, they will.
Should you want to study social work, the NSFAS requirements are as follows:
- Must be a South African citizen
- Household income must come to R350 000 or less per year
- If you're a person living with a disability, the household income threshold is then R600 000 or less per year
- Must be applying to or be registered at a public higher education institution
NSFAS covers tuition, registration and provides students with allowances for their transport, living expenses and learning materials.
NSFAS applications can be submitted online by submitting your NSFAS application on myNSFAS, at National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) centres and Thusong Centres.
Applications for NSFAS funding usually open around September every year. You can find the latest updates about NSFAS on Careers Portal.
If you are interested in pursuing a degree in social science at a South Africa institution, it is best to check the admission requirements of the particular institution and whether or not they accept NSFAS funding.
Here are some social science courses you may be interested in pursuing:
- Sociology
- Psychology
- Political Science
- International Relations
- Development Studies
- Social Work
- Anthropology
- History
- Economics
- Human Geography
- Criminology
- Communication Studies
- Philosophy
- Public Administration
- Gender Studies
- African Studies
- Cultural Studies
- Linguistics
- Archaeology
- Education
These courses may be offered at undergraduate or postgraduate level, and can lead to a variety of career paths in fields such as academia, government, NGOs, research and media.
