NSFAS pays out R4.27bn as more than 189,000 students fail academic progress criteria

TheNational Student Financial Aid Scheme(NSFAS) has disbursed R4.27bn to universities and TVET colleges, while 189,222 students did not meet the academic progress criteria. NSFAS acting CEO Waseem Carrim, speaking at a briefing on the2026 academic yearin Pretoria, said they have 5,000 students with outstanding results, mainly due to supplementary exams. Carrim said they have approved more than 660,000 students for funding, while there are 21,483 applications with outstanding documents.

However, he said there has been progress with applications missing documents, with more than 180,000 outstanding documents submitted. “NSFAS, as a developmental fund and in understanding South Africa’s social constructs, does allow students with outstanding documents to resubmit. Our teams have worked around the clock to address these outstanding documents, which has resulted in an additional 50,000 approvals prior to the closing of the registration cycle.

“Regrettably, students continue to upload incorrect or unclear documents, which creates a feedback loop between outstanding documents and NSFAS’s ability to consider these applications. NSFAS encourages students to send clear, correct copies of the documents requested,” he said. Carrimsaid the fund has received 92,000 appeals, and they have already worked through 75% of them, with 10,400 approved, 3,200 with missing documents, and about 5,400 rejected.

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“Students are allowed to lodge appeals should they be dissatisfied with the outcome, whether they are first-time entering or continuing students. We would like, if possible, to conclude all outstanding appeals by the end of this week so students have clarity on their funding status. We remain committed to processing all appeals fairly, transparently, and efficiently,” he said.

In light of recent accommodation issues, specifically at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), Carrim said that although the institution manages accommodation independently, they have been in conversation to support NSFAS-funded students. “For the upcoming academic year, higher education institutions participating in the student accommodation project will continue to have their accommodation payments managed by NSFAS, while institutions that have historically managed accommodation payments independently will manage their current arrangements during this transitional period,” he said. There have been 194,000 accommodation applications, of which 55,600 have been approved.

A total of 90,800 are at institutional review, while about 53,000 are at the landlord approval stage. Upfront payments and disbursements have begun, with R3.6bn disbursed to universities and R679m paid to TVET colleges.

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