R15.2 billion for 2017 NSFAS funding

R15.2 billion for 2017 NSFAS funding

Higher Education and Training Minister, Blade Nzimande has announced that an amount of R15.2 billion will be provided to NSFAS for student bursaries and loans in 2017. From that allocation, NSFAS will utilize R718 million for full bursaries for scarce and critical skills from the National Skills Fund. R76.6 million will be provided for funding of students with disabilities.

“We have also gone further and made arrangements through NSFAS to pay the registration fees for all NSFAS funded students as an upfront payment to universities and TVET colleges in January each year. Therefore, NSFAS qualifying students will not pay any registration or upfront fees in 2017,” the Minister added.

Meanwhile, NSFAS Executive Officer Msulwa Daca, said NSFAS has already started to provide lists of funded students to some of the institutions in batches to assist the registration process. “This is because some students are still continuing to apply to institutions”. Some institutions will receive student lists after the closing of applications.