The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) faces a student funding shortfall because it does not have enough money to fund all qualifying students. This is according to Buti Manamela, Minister of Higher Education, who stated that the financial scheme is facing an estimated R15 billion student-funding gap across universities and TVET colleges.
Manamela mentioned that universities account for the overwhelming majority of the requirement and added that the problem runs deeper than being overspent.
He stated that a report had shown that there is what he explained as a ‘structural mismatch’ between the number of qualifying students needing support, the baseline allocation and the disappearance of once-off funding sources supported in previous years.
“This does not absolve NSFAS of the obligation to control expenditure, verify liabilities and operate within the law. The immediate second-semester funding requirement must therefore be dealt with separately from the broader structural shortfall,” explained Manamela.
Manamela also added that qualifying students cannot simply be abandoned because a long-term funding problem remains unsolved, but neither can government resolve a structural problem through repeated emergency interventions.
He confirmed that he has received the administration’s initial stabilization plan, which outlines correcting systemic problems including weakness in governance, financial controls, accommodations, as well as appeals and providing a useful strategic framework.
Manamela cautioned that despite the submission of the plan, it does not mean that stabilization at NSFAS has been achieved.
“The Department’s preliminary assessment is that the plan remains stronger at the level of strategic commitment than at the implementation level. It still requires clearer quantitative baselines, costed interventions, measurable milestones and stronger evidence against which progress can be assessed,” Manamela added.
