The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) provides loans and bursaries to students to access higher education. They will cover courses done at public institutions, including universities and TVET Colleges.
Being funded by NSFAS requires you to do a few things so that you can stay funded until you finish your qualification. This includes and Academic eligibility criteria.
NSFAS Requirements To Stay Funded
Universities
Continuing and First-time entering new university students must achieve a course credit pass rate of 50%. Also, must achieve a course credit pass rate of 60% for the end of the year.
TVET Colleges
NC(V) students must progress to the next NC(V) level and also pass at least 5 subjects to stay funded for the next academic year.
NATED Report 191 students must pass at least 3 subjects to stay funded for the next level.
As for occupational programmes, NSFAS has said that the academic progression criteria requirements for continuing students studying occupational programmes will be determined by TVET Colleges.
NSFAS has explained that, "Institutions will confirm with NSFAS at the start of the academic year that students have qualified for progression according to standard institutional policy and approved rules of progression for the specific programme they are studying."
N+ Rule
The N+ rule dictates how many years you are allowed to be funded through NSFAS. N refers to the duration the course is and the + refers to the number of extra years NSFAS will fund you should you need to repeat the year.
Now that it's a bursary scheme, the N+1 rule applies. This would then mean basically the same thing as above. If your qualification is supposed to run for 4 years, you're then given 5 years to complete it while being funded by NSFAS and any more years, you will need to find your own funding.
For students living with disabilities, the N+2 rule applies.
It's important to remember that the N refers to the years that you're registered for the course. Should you take a gap year, you won't count that year.
NSFAS provides bursaries to students who come from poor and working class backgrounds who are registered or plan to study at Public Universities and TVET Colleges.
