The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) will receive R34.5 billion this year to help students from working class background access higher education.
The scheme’s administrator Dr Randall Carolissen confirmed the amount which would be used to fund qualifying students at universities
and Technical and Vocational
Education and Training (TVET)
colleges in 2020.
So far, about 462887 first time applicants have been approved for funding while applications for appeals were also being processed.
“We are in the process of making funding decisions for the appeals. As a result, out of 5965 appeals received so far, 2121 have been processed and approved. This window will run until February 28,” Carolissen said.
The budget allocated to help
students through the scheme has been steadily increasing, from R21.4 million in 1991 to R70.4m in 1994 and R10bn in 2016.