Finding and securing accommodation is one of the students' many concerns as beneficiaries of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), particularly because there is a frequent struggle to secure a place at campus or private residences, due to the common shortages of university accommodation.
NSFAS provides its qualifying students with allowances that cover the costs of higher education, such as tuition, transport and accommodation fees, which ensures that students can live closer to the university or college where they are studying.
However, while this financial aid is much-needed and much-appreciated, the bursary scheme has not always been consistent or helpful when it comes to successfully disbursing its funds on time or placing students in decent accommodation.
The need for accommodation by students has also resulted in the creation and establishment of new accommodation facilities. However, not all of these accommodation facilities (new and old) are conducive to studying, may not be appropriate for students to reside in or are simply unaffordable.
While acknowledging that government cannot resolve all student housing-related problems, NSFAS aspires to play a role in the student housing industry, by introducing an off-take agreement.
An off-take agreement is an arrangement between a producer and a buyer to purchase or sell portions of the producer's upcoming goods or services. In the case of NSFAS, they want accommodation providers to agree to host the scheme's beneficiaries.
To get this going, a NSFAS student accommodation portal has been set up and implemented, where accredited accommodation providers can register and upload their details for beneficiaries to view while they search for student-housing.
The creation of this portal was for the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) to ensure that students have access to suitable accommodation while they are studying and funded by NSFAS.
Once signed in, accommodation providers will be able to list their properties by providing their property names, location and images.
NSFAS will then contact them and send a panel of experts to accredit and grade the properties to ensure that they are suitable for student living.
On the portal, students can also make an account/profile for themselves and simply search for their desired accommodation within the areas they are looking for. Applying to the accommodation of their choice can also directly be done on the portal's platform.
All accommodation candidates are required to submit all the necessary supporting materials, including business cases as needed. The start of the separate process to accredit current accommodations will be made known in due time.
