The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) provides funding to students who come from poor and working class backgrounds. This is done through NSFAS bursaries and the NSFAS missing middle loan.
With the NSFAS bursary, a requirement is that you don't have another full bursary from another source. However, some students might fall into a situation where that external funding is lost.
Are they still able to apply for NSFAS?
Fortunately, should you lose your external funding, NSFAS could still save you and your tertiary education. NSFAS has said:
A student who receives financial aid from a funder other than NSFAS and loses this financial aid during the academic term and the NSFAS window for applications is not open, is allowed to apply to NSFAS for financial aid through their institution.
So yes, students can still get NSFAS if their initial bursary is no longer available to them.
NSFAS has however made it clear that should the reason behind losing the external funding be due to poor academics, the student won't qualify for NSFAS funding.
To qualify for the NSFAS bursary, the student would however need to meet the NSFAS eligibility criteria.
NSFAS Eligibility Criteria
- Passed Grade 9 to 12 to receive NSFAS funding to study at a TVET college and Grade 12 to receive funding to study at a university or TVET college
- South African citizen
- All SASSA grant recipients qualifies for funding
- Household income must be between R0 and R350 000 per annum for bursaries and between R350 001 and R600 000 for a loan
- Must be studying or planning to study at a public higher education institution
Bursaries and loans provided by NSFAS has enabled millions of students to study further and gain a tertiary qualification. NSFAS funding is available to students who want to study at one of the 26 public universities or 50 TVET Colleges in South Africa.
Every year, thousands of students apply for NSFAS funding. Should students have a partial bursary and apply for NSFAS funding, they could still qualify, as long as they meet the NSFAS requirements for funding.
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.