Blade Nzimande notes sharp increase in demand for NSFAS bursaries for 2022

Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande said that there had been a sharp increase in the demand for National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) bursaries this year.

Students had from 2 November last year to 21 January 2022 to apply for NSFAS bursaries.

Nzimande said that NSFAS had received more than 906,000 applications for the 2022 application period, of which 85% had not studied at a public university before.

“In comparison to the number of applications received over the last three years, we have observed a sharp increase in the demand for NSFAS bursaries for this year,” Nzimande said.

He has also raised concern about the number of students who were defrauding the NSFAS scheme by submitting false information.

“According to the analysis performed on a cohort of 2021 students, NSFAS has established that 88,744 continues students at TVET colleges and the university continued to be funded even though they had realized a substantial improvement in household income over the funding period,” the minister said.

He explains what their analysis had shown.

“From this analysis, 82,654 students benefiting from NSFAS had a household income that exceeds R400,000, yet the limit for NSFAS students’ family income is R350,000,” he said.

-EWN

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