NSFAS Latest News Today 13th March On Accommodation
In todays latest NSFAS News – There are now thousands of college students without beds across the country. This is because of the R45 000 accommodation cap that the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) recently instituted.
Six hundred and ninety thousand students used NSFAS last year to help pay for college. The National Student Financial Aid System (NSFAS) is a federally funded program that awards grants to low-income students who enroll in public universities or technical and vocational (TVET) colleges. The National Science Foundation’s Academic Excellence Award (NSFAS) provides funding for school expenses like books, fees, and living expenses.
However, NSFAS implemented new policies at the start of the year to reduce price-fixing and collusion among university employees and make funding more readily available to qualified applicants. The R45 000 limit on monthly housing expenses was one such policy. As a result, it has become difficult for students receiving financial aid to find affordable housing, forcing some to resort to sleeping in public spaces on campus.
NSFAS has revealed their intervention in the ongoing housing crisis.
The National Student Financial Aid System (NSFAS) and the South African Union of Students (SAUS) have been in talks for the past few weeks about how to address these nationwide issues through the bursary scheme.
Slumezi Skosana, a spokesperson for NSFAS, says the agency is working to find other places for students who have been seen sleeping in public.
According to Skosana, the universities hardest hit by the limit on on-campus housing will be given top priority. There are a number of excellent public universities in South Africa, such as the University of Pretoria, Rhodes University, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Stellenbosch University, Sol Plaatjie University, and the University of Witwatersrand.
Skosana warns that the scheme may have to take extraordinary measures to ensure that financially supported students do not end up homeless as a result of rising housing costs.
NSFAS is communicating with affected institutions to gather trustworthy data and expedite the process.
