With the 2023 academic year so close, the Department of Higher Education and the National Student Financial Aid Scheme are preparing for another year. Thousands of students each year are funded through Nsfas bursaries.
Every year, the beginning of the year brings rise to protests at a lot of the universities. One of the main causes of these protests involve the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (Nsfas).
Now, Nsfas is planning for a hassle-free and delay-free 2023 academic year. The scheme predicts that they will see a 7% increase in the number of students funded, compared to last year.
During a parliamentary committee meeting, Nsfas said that this increase “would be covered within the allocated budget”.
For 2023, the organisation has made the following predictions when it comes to Nsfas funding:
- 394 115 continuing students and 165 111 new students will be funded in 2023, bringing the total of students funded in 2023 to 559 226.
- 337 224 TVET college students will be funded
Nsfas is expecting to spend a little over R39 billion on university students, with an average cost of R69 987 per student, and near to R9 billion on TVET College students. This comes to a total cost of close to R48 billion, just on student funding for 2023.
TVET funding for the year is expected to see a 48% increase when compared to 2022, which the scheme says would result in a shortfall of R1.9 billion. Nsfas has however said, “This will, however, be covered in the previous year’s savings”.
For the first quarter of 2023, Nsfas would need R3.5 billion to cover Nsfas allowances, with allowances for medical students needing to be paid in January.
As for TVET colleges, R1.9 billion is needed in December with an additional R5.4 billion. According to Nsfas, they have identified other funder resources that can be used and reimbursed at a later stage to cover these costs.
