NATIONAL NEWS - Prospective students who wanted to study at a public university or TVET college in 2020, had eight days left to apply for funding before the closing of application cycle on 30 November.
National student financial aid scheme (NSFAS) spokesperson Phatisa Ntlonze said as part of the intensified application drive, NSFAS had rolled out a regional “town to town” outreach intervention programme to reach out to prospective beneficiaries and students who had not submitted their applications.
“NSFAS aims to utilise these programmes to leverage equal opportunities for access in, and success to, higher education and training, mainly telescoping disadvantaged communities, and provinces with low number applications received,” Ntlonze said.
She said over the next few days, NSFAS officers would continue to be deployed across all nine provinces with a focus to Eastern Cape, Free State, North West, Northern Cape, and Western Cape due to the low number of applications received in these provinces.
“To date, the scheme has received 365 922 applications nationwide, with KwaZulu Natal, Gauteng, and Limpopo provinces continuing to lead with the highest number of applications.”
NSFAS administrator Randall Carolissen said that although the number of applicants living with disability increased significantly over the prior year to over a 1 000 it remained “disappointingly low”.
Carolissen said that NSFAS had prioritised engagements with relevant government departments and agencies to improve applications in this regard.
“Applicants who do not have access to computer facilities and smartphones are urged to visit their nearest national youth development agency offices, local libraries, government communication and information system, Thusong centres, and department of basic education district teacher development centres nationwide, to apply for funding,” Ntlonze said.
