NSFAS calls on rejected applicants to appeal

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has called on more than 300,000 applicants it rejected for the 2023 academic year to lodge appeals.

The fund received more than 1,5-million applications for this academic year and rejected about 300,803 hopefuls for various reasons. However, on Wednesday, the fund issued a statement inviting those rejected to appeal to their Independent Appeals Tribunal. 

The appeals tribunal, which will be chaired by the likes of Tommy Ntsewa, Yonke Twani and Zodwa Kula among others, will start the process next week and among the stakeholders will be the department of higher education and technology, South African Public Colleges Organisation, South African Union of Students and South African Technical Vocational Education and Training Student Association respectively.

The tribunal has been established to provide effective management of appeals from students whose applications for funding have been rejected, or discontinued funding, in the case of continuing students.

Out of all the applications, some of rejected applicants are due to submit their pending documents to have their applications finalised. This is to ensure that NSFAS responds to appeals in a way that contributes to the NSFAS’s supportive and fair funding environment, and is consistent with the principles of fairness, equal opportunity and natural justice, said the fund.

The fund has been hit by various challenges ahead of the start of this year’s academic programme. Most of the problems were about the allocation of fund to beneficiaries. 

Last week, several students from the University of Pretoria slept outside the institution’s residence offices  due to not having enough funds to pay for on-campus and off-campus private accommodation. They wanted the fund to increase the accommodation allowance from R45,000 to R60,000.