Does NSFAS Fund Medicine Students? | Answered

NSFAS fund medicine students as medicine are the course of a long period of time because NSFAS does not fund other short courses including Postgraduate courses, a second undergraduate degree, or private institutions courses.

Approximation of Students/year

NSFAS is a scheme that provides funds to only South African students. Therefore, every year approximately 14 000 students apply for medicine which eventually makes the process of getting admission into medicine even harder.

Moreover, despite providing funds to medical students to South African students, South Africa still faces a shortage of medical doctors. 3000 medical graduated students are needed per year and South Africa is occupied with only 1300 medical students who graduate per year.

The necessity of the NSFAS Fund

One would be thinking after knowing this, how low would the rate of medical graduate students in South Africa be if the funds were not given to them from the NSFAS scheme? And this is the great reason behind the high demand and expense of the medical industry.

Applying N+1 Rule for Medical Students

Besides costly measures, medical students are also judged on the basis of their academic skills and requirements. And if a student fails to fulfill such requirements then NSFAS would not be made funded to him or her. Instead, NSFAS would only cover that extra year which is on top of the duration of studies. And this technique is called the N+1 rule applied by NSFAS and this rule is mostly considered for short courses.

South African Medical Requirements

Grading good passing marks in mathematics, physical science, and life science at level 4, achieving 60% marks for their home language and at least an average of 70% for their national senior certificate are the basic requirements needed to fulfill receiving the fund from NSFAS.

Quota System

As race is taken into consideration so the selection process became a little hard because of the established quota system.

Preference due to Past Imbalances

Black and colored people are preferred to be selected first due to their past imbalances on the basis of racism. As white and Indian people were away from such injustice. This is why the process of selection in medical school considers all these sentiments of people as well.

Other Bursaries for Funding Medical Students

Department of Health bursaries, the South African Medical Association, and Dell Young Leaders bursaries are some other funding organizations. These foundations are mostly made for the provinces of South Africa for the people who are in need of financial cooperation. Every year SAMA helps people coming from poor backgrounds in South Africa.

Furthermore, here is a list of other bursaries like NSFAS for other studying programs.

FAQ’s

Conclusion

In short, NSFAS is a great scheme that provides funds and scholarships to medical students to encourage and fulfilling their studies if their monthly expenses money is less than approximate.