Millions allocated to historic Nsfas debt
Higher Education Minister Naledi Pandor has allocated R967 million to settle the historic debt owned by students through the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (Nsfas).
The money is meant for 52 000 students who were registered with Nsfas prior to 2018 and who were required to fund part of their fees through family or own funding.
The minister’s spokesperson Lunga Ngqengelele says the issue of historic debt remains a concern.
"The funding provided by Nsfas for these students was subject to a funding cap and often included an expected family contribution. As a result, the amount of funding provided by Nsfas was sometimes insufficient to cover the total actual fees and cost of study, particularly at universities and programmes with high fees.
"This resulted in students accruing debt with their institution despite being funded by Nsfas.
“The new funding model introduced in 2018 doesn't have an expected family contribution, with this new model Nsfas pays institution directly for accommodation, food and transportation costs.”
Students who entered the university system prior to the new scheme being implemented will continue to be funded through Nsfas on the pre-2018 funding model.
"These students would have accrued further debt during their 2018 academic year if their fees were above the Nsfas cap.
"In order to address this, Minister Pandor said her department plans to provide funding to Nsfas during the 2019 academic year to clear this debt."
In 2018 Nsfas announced that student whose household income is R350 000 will qualify for funding, as opposed to the previous threshold of R122 000.
Ngqengelele says the department expects that all student funded through the old threshold would have exited the system by 2022.
“Minister Pandor indicated that this is the first phase of the assessment of the historical debt owed to universities.
“Work on the due diligence exercise begun by the Minister of Higher Education and Training, in consultation with the Minister of Finance and Minister of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation continues.”
Meanwhile, the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) has welcomed the move to assist students with historic debt.
"We think that indeed a lot of students, over 52 000 of them, will be able to get much-needed education so that they can change their lives for the better," the NYDA’s Sifiso Mtsweni says.