With the embattled National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) yet to finalise outstanding payments for students, higher learning institutions have been urged to allow students in to accommodations and to register.
As registration commenced at all tertiary institutions and TVET colleges some students said they were stranded due to various issues, including lack of payment and accommodation providers allegedly not being accredited.
The new accommodation pilot project portal also experienced operational issues.
According to Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande, the TVET headcount for enrolment was 482 244 students while universities received 270 000 applications for scarce skills.
Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) will be among eight universities that will accept late applications.
“I call upon NSFAS to work together with the affected institutions to ensure that they speedily resolve all these outstanding cases. Whilst this is being resolved, I urge institutions not to deny NSFAS-funded students with outstanding payments to register for the current cycle. Submission of accurate registration information is important to circumvent delays in the payment processes. I have noted with concern that the main reason for the outstanding payments was due to reconciliations that NSFAS has been engaged with predominantly because of registration data changes,” said Nzimande.
He briefed the media on Tuesday, on the state of readiness following the release of the 2023 matric results.
“We have developed a monitoring tool to assess registration, readiness for teaching and learning, student academic support, management and stakeholder relations, plans for funding new and returning students, status of institutional finances and challenges. As part of ensuring a smooth beginning of the 2024 academic year, NSFAS will process up to R4.2 billion as an upfront payment to all our institutions, prior to the finalisation of the application and registration periods,” he said.
As of January 2024 the entity received 1.5 million applications and provisionally funded 657 703 Sassa recipients.
According to Higher Education director-general Nkosinathi Sishi the higher education sector had the capacity to absorb qualifying learners as they have completed Grade 12.
A total of 280 000 pupils qualified for admission into university Bachelor studies and just under 200 000 qualified for admission for diplomas.
“We are saying there is enough at all higher learning institutions including TVETs. The issue is not the number of spaces available for the class of 2023 but at certain areas of interest or at certain faculties there might be a struggle, but we will engage with universities about these issues. We have deployed teams at institutions that will be visible this year because we are excited and eager to support parents and students,” said Sishi.
Cape Times