By Katlego Sekhu
In this week’s Anonymous Advice, a mother called the station to ask for help with an NSFAS application for her daughter. She says according to the feedback she’s received, she earns above the maximum threshold set by NFSAS. She, however, disagrees with this and has submitted supporting documents.
To help her find a way forward, Thomas and Skhumba spoke to NSFAS spokesperson Kagisho Mamabolo this morning.
“I can clarify that we don’t have any offices at any of the institutions across the country. We work with the financial aid offices of the universities which are managed by the university,” explains Mamabolo.
Who qualifies for a student loan?
Mamabolo shares the criteria NSFAS uses to check one’s affordability.
“We look at the ability not to be able to pay for yourself. In other words, should your income be above 350k per annum you wouldn’t qualify for NSFAS. Irrespective of your final year mark.
“So ideally, the priority of the government in terms of those who need funding, are firstly those who received social grants when they were below the ages of eighteen.”
“It would be those whose parents’ income is below R350k. And if you are living with any form of disability, the income assessment of the family is stretched up to R600k. This is for the first-year students that are applying.”
When it comes to students who previously studied through their own funding, they consider the student’s progression.
“But we do have students that are continuing or returning to University who would have previously studied through their own funding, with such students one of the requirements we apply in addition to financial eligibility is we look at the progression.
“We check if the student is on par with the progression of the requirements of the University so that we do not fund students who don’t have the prospect of completing their degree on time,’ explains Mamabolo.
Challenges faced at the moment
Mamabolo says that the biggest challenge NSFAS is facing at the moment is that there were not able to release the list of funding on time.
“One of the biggest challenges faced at the moment is the fact that we were not able to release the list of funding in time. As a result, the list which was sent to the university arrived there when students were in the process of registering. So that has created a lot of confusion and a lot of stress among other students,” he said in part.
In other news: Sibongile Mani found guilty of NSFAS theft
