NSFAS Allowances 2024 | Five+ Essentials Detail Covered by NSFAS

Are you in need of financial support for your education? NSFAS is prepared to forecast their plans to fund an estimated number of 1 million students to support them with their higher studies in the academic year of 2023.

We are here to give you all the necessary information that you are looking for.

National Student Financial Aid Scheme or NSFAS, is a financial aid scheme for financially weak undergrad students given by the South African government to help them with their studies after graduating from high school.

This bursary scheme is designed to promote higher education among the citizens of the country to stabilize the socioeconomic crisis. This aid is funded by the Department of Higher Education and Training.

NSFAS allowance covers various essentials of the students to ensure better educations. The allowances given by NSFAS to students are;

1. Accommodation Allowance

After the tuition fees, accommodation cost is a major worry for the learners as they want a place which provides a healthy and peaceful environment where they can focus on their studies. NSFAS has also covered this domain and offers allowance as per the living area. Those students who live more than 40km away from the college or university in a private accommodation, will be given a generous amount of money as per their living distance.

An accommodation allowance of R15750 per year will be given to those students who live in a rural area to help them with their accommodation. R18900 allowance is given to students who live in peri-urban areas. Students who live in urban areas are given an allowance of R25200 per year similarly if the student is living in the place provided by their college or university their allowance becomes R33000 per year.

2. Tuition and Registration allowance

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme covers full fees of tuition for the whole academic year. It also pays for the registration fees of the institute that will enroll you. It is designed to lift as much financial weight off of students’ shoulders as possible as the main concern of the majority of students is their tuition fee.

3. Transport Allowance

Students living less than 40km away from the institute will be able to receive R7350 per year. This allowance will help to cover the expenses of their traveling to universities and colleges or any other educational trip.

4. Learning Material Allowance

For the academic year 2023 the learning material allowance for students is set to be R5,460. This allowance can be used to buy all the necessary learning materials like books and devices like laptop and tablets used for learning purposes. This allowance is a great step to provide all the tools to equip the learners for quality education

5. Personal Care Allowance

Students will be granted R2900 per year for incidental or personal care allowance that will cover their minor fees like meals etc. other than the main expenses. NSFAS will pay these allowances through direct payment or through their NSFAS banks.

6. Allowances for TVET Students

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme or NSFAS has also empowered the students of Technical and Vocational Education and Training also known as TVET by aiding them financially.

TVET students will get;

Full tuition fees
Transport allowance of R7350 per year for students living 40km away from the educational institution.
Students living in an urban area will get R24000 per year. Those living in peri-urban will get R18900 per year and those who live in a rural area will get R15750.
Personal care or incidental allowance of R2900 for the minor expenses of the students.

7. NSFAS UNISA Allowances 2023

University of South Africa or UNISA is a leading university in South Africa. UNISA students are also covered by NSFAS and they are provided with learning material allowance and living allowance. They can get a learning material allowance of R5200 for their first five modules. Learning material allowance includes the purchasing of academic books and digital devices like laptops, iPads and tablets used for educational purposes.

They will also get R2900 of incidental or personal care allowance if they choose to opt for 10 or more modules. It will help to cover their additional expenses other than tuition fee and registration fee. NSFAS will also completely cover their tuition fees.

National Student Financial Aid Scheme or NSFAS, has a proper criteria for eligibility. This allowance is extremely important to ensure both students and the country’s development and that is the reason why it has very strict criteria. You must meet the following criteria for the eligibility of NSFAS allowance;

It is compulsory to be a South African citizen.
It is a compulsion that you should have undergraduate qualification or intend to get it in 2023 and opt for higher education in any South African university or TVET college.
You will not be selected if you have any previous qualification.

You must fulfil any one of the following categories.

You are a receiver of the South African Social Security Agency grant
Your total combined household income is R350 000 or less per year.
You have a disability and your total combined household income is R600 000 or less per year.
You have commenced your studies before 2018 and your total and combined household income is R122 00 or less per year.

Once you have qualified for the bursary scheme you are required to follow some standard rules to remain eligible for funding.

You must act in accordance with the rules and regulations and requirements set by the institution.
You should follow your timetable and maintain your attendance by attending the lectures.
Those students who are not starting their first year of higher education must pass 75% of their modules or according to the 2023 allowance they will no longer be eligible for the funding.

These rules are set to ensure that students passed all of their courses in order to take full benefits from the allowance.

NSFAS Allowances 2023 NEWS

DATE: THURSDAY, 23 FEBRUARY 2023

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has taken into consideration the high accommodation cost of students from various universities and they have brought it to the competition commission.

The people providing accommodation have increased the rent to a very high level thus forcing students from universities like University of Pretoria, Wits University, Stellenbosch and University of Cape Town, out from their previously living area.

“The unaffordability of accommodation does not only affect NSFAS students, but parents from both poor and middle-class families who cannot afford monthly rent amounts of up to R9 000.00. If this matter is not confronted urgently by all stakeholders, student accommodation will simply be unaffordable for many and so will be education”.
Mr. Slumezi Skosana who is spokesperson of NSFAS

The private accommodation providers charge more that R90, 000.00 per year which makes the NSFAS accommodation allowance unsustainable. To combat this issue NSFAS urges all the stakeholders to take action on this matter.

DATE: 08 FEBRUARY 2023

Blade Nazimande is all set to visit the NSFAS offices for the updated version of the allowance.

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) board and management will present an updated version of the allowance showing the application received, post application report, application cycle and funding and disbursements of 2023 allowances.

The chairperson of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), on the occasion of the NSFAS state of readiness for the academic year 2023, said that their new institution portal will help in improving the integration of data between the institutions and NFSAS.
Mr. Ernest Khosa, The chairperson of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS)

This will help in easy data transferring and disbursements. Further he talked about eligibility of the student of Technical and Vocational Education and Training that in case they have an employment contract and they have registered themselves on occupational qualification, they will not be eligible for the 2023 allowance. He said that NSFAS launched a digital device program where they delivered a great amount of laptops to students of various colleges and universities during covid 19.

The program envisions a partnership with mobile network operators to provide pre-loaded data to students on a monthly basis along with the laptops. This will be done hopefully by the end of the first quarter of the academic year 2023. Furthermore, he said that NSFAS has created WhatsApp and USSD to help students with tracking of their applications and better communication with NSFAS.

To avoid fraud, students must never share their pin with anyone including NSFAS. Students get an allowance for only one qualification from an institute. Students must never register for more than one qualification as the program does not support more than one qualification.

In short, NSFAS allowance 2023 has covered almost all of the expenses of the South African students. Once they get the allowance they do not have to worry about their tuition and registration fee, living and transport expenses and personal care expenses. This is a great step taken by the South African government to help in healing the country’s socioeconomic situation caused by colonialism.