NSFAS Officially Opens Applications For 2018 Academic Year

NSFAS Officially Opens Applications For 2018 Academic Year

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (Nsfas) has officially opened applications for funding for the 2018 academic year.
The launch was held in partnership with the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA).  The NYDA will provide over 100 centres country-wide to assist with applications.

Prospective learners can apply on the Nsfas website or at the NYDA offices. The Nsfas says it has made some major changes to improve the application process. Applicants will now receive a card acknowledging receipt, which will ensure that every application can be traced. The application form has been simplified from eleven to two pages. Acting Chief Executive Officer at Nsfas, Lerato Nage, says the first day got off to a smooth start.

“As we sitting here, we have +/-500 interactive users on our website who are applying for funding. As of this morning (Tuesday), at 9am we had at least 40 applicants who created the accounts, who have registered, who have successfully applied for funding for the 2018 academic year cycle for Nsfas. There are also learners in this centre who are also applying for funding for 2018.”

We have made sure that our centres are equipped with relevant technology

The partnership with NYDA is to enable easy access to application centres for people who may not have access to the internet. The NYDA says the 115 centres are strategically located in rural and semi-rural areas, as well as townships.

The centres will be open from 8am to 5pm during weekdays. NYDA CEO, Khathu Ramukumba says this partnership has created temporary work for unemployed young graduates, who will assist with applications.

“We have made sure that our centres are equipped with relevant technology to ensure that those who wish to apply online are able to do so. But it is important for me to highlight that even those who wish to apply manually will still be able to do so as these centres will provide them an opportunity to drop manual applications which our staff will be able to capture and process online to ensure that everybody is granted equal opportunity to access the funding.”

The NYDA has promised to publish the details of all the centres on its website. Learners who attended the official launch at the Youth Centre at Ratanda in Heidelberg say managed to get their applications at the venue. “They treated us very nice and they gave us the best services, “says one of the learners.

An employee at the Ratanda Centre says applicants are required to be in possession of all the necessary compulsory documents before making an application.

“A certified copy of your ID, certified copy of your parents or guardian’s ID, a certified copies of the household proof of income. We also need a signed consent form. If a student is disabled we require a document completed. We just call it annexure A which is a questionnaire. Once we have all these documents, we start with the process of registering the students on the My Nsfas portal.”

Nsfas disbursed R10 billion this year to fund more than half a million students. However, there were some university students who were complaining that they had not received food, travel and accommodation allowances, months after the academic year had started.

Head of Business Enablement at Nsfas Victor Rambau says that is because they had not signed the loan agreement form.

“We do have money for all the students who are funded. We are waiting for them to acknowledge the documents that we sent to them so that we can then proceed to process the documents.”

Applications close on the 30 November.