The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) received 233 470 applications for funding to attend 26 public universities or 50 technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges‚ and has been so inundated with requests that it has extended the period for applications‚ CEO Msulwa Daca said on Thursday.

Students will be ranked and evaluated to determine who should be prioritised for financial aid and decisions made once it has been established that they have passed their matric exams and been accepted by institutions of higher learning.

The application process opened on August 1 and closed on November 30.

Because of the volume of applications‚ NSFAS executive management decided to open a second and last application window for financial aid. Applications for students who wish to study at TVET colleges will open from January 9‚ 2017 and close on February 14‚ 2017; and applications for students who wish to study at universities will open from January 9‚ 2017 and close on January 20‚ 2017.

“As communicated by government‚ matriculants who are currently receiving a social grant and are accepted in institutions of higher learning will no longer go through a means test to qualify for financial aid from the NSFAS‚” Daca said.

“The second phase of application period will not affect the first phase of the applications that were already received by 30 November‚ 2016. For students who already applied by the recent deadline of 30 November‚ 2016‚ NSFAS is still evaluating and processing all applications and will communicate the outcomes to students as of the 5th of January‚ 2017. For those who will submit applications from 9 January‚ 2017‚ outcome of applications will be communicated from 1 February‚ 2017‚” Daca said.

Following widespread and prolonged protests‚ government decided to support children of all poor‚ working- and middle-class families‚ with a household income of up to R600 000 per annum‚ with subsidy funding to cover the gap between the 2015 fee and the adjusted 2017 fee at their institution. This will be done for fee increments up to 8%.

This will mean that all NSFAS-qualifying students‚ as well as the so-called “missing middle” – that is‚ students whose families earn above the NSFAS threshold but who are unable to support their children’s access to higher education — will experience no fee increase in 2017. Government will pay for the fee adjustment. This will apply to students at universities and TVET colleges.

The higher education minister has constituted a ministerial task team on funding support for the poor and “missing middle” students‚ which is developing a model that will be tested in 2017 to provide affordable support to these students.

In the longer term‚ the presidential commission of inquiry is looking into higher education and training funding‚ which includes universities‚ and TVET colleges. – TMG Digital/BusinessLIVE