Student Experience - News #NSFASStudent Experience - News #NSFAShttps://www.studentexperience.co.za/blogs/tag/NSFASFri, 16 Jan 2026 04:31:38 -0800http://zoho.com/sites/<![CDATA[NSFAS, SAQA & DSI 2021/22 Annual Performance Plans; with Minister and Deputy Minister]]>https://www.studentexperience.co.za/blogs/post/nsfas-saqa-dsi-2021-22-annual-performance-plans-with-minister-and-deputy-minister
Date: 05 May 2021
Chairperson: Mr P Mapulane (ANC)

Meeting Synopsis

The Committee met virtually to receive briefings from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, South African Qualifications Authority and the Department of Science and Technology on their 2020-25 Strategic Plans and 2021/22 Annual Performance Plans.


Amongst the difficulties of the troubled National Students Financial Aid Scheme, the unavailability of resources to carry its mandate effectively was raised sharply by the Scheme. The entity informed Members that the demand for funding was expected to sharply increase over the medium term due to the pandemic, job losses and the weak economic growth. Due to unavailability of resources many students could not access funding. What worsened matters at the Scheme were the challenges presented by its Information and Communications Technology systems, which were not fit for purpose, and a poor governance environment with policies not properly enforced. Its approved budget for the 2020/21 financial year amounted to R41.5 billion, which excluded the R6.4 billion additional budget approved by the Minister awaiting virement from the National Treasury. By 2023/24, its budget would decrease to R39.6 billion, which posed serious challenges with the expected increase in the number of student applications for funding. Needless to mention that the new Board inherited a disastrous organisation from the previous Administrator, but Members rallied behind the new Board and assured the Board and management that if it remained its preoccupation to address the multiple inefficiencies in the entity, it will receive the full support of the Committee to turn around the entity.


The South African Qualifications Authority reported on its new structure, which was forcefully imposed on it by the Covid-19 pandemic as a result of significant losses of income. The lockdown severely affected the Authority’s ability to generate income from services. It revised its revenue projection for 2021/22 and this unfortunately resulted in a shortfall of R19 million. Challenges experienced in balancing the 2020/21 budget resulted in major expense and projects being deferred to 2021/22. The Authority was then left with no choice but to initiate retrenchments on 01 May 2021 to avoid further payments of salaries as it attempted to minimise the volume of retrenchments. It assured the Committee that under the new structure, the retrenched staff would be prioritised for available positions.


The Minister joined the meeting to provide an overview of the work that the Department of Science and Innovation has been doing. He touched on the White Paper on Science and Innovation and the Decadal Plan, which its aim was not only to mainstream the STI (Science, Technology and Innovation) in government, in a broad sense, but to also mainstream it in the whole of society. The adoption of the Decadal Plan meant that the President will soon appoint an Inter-Ministerial Committee responsible for overseeing the implementation of the Decadal Plan from Cabinet level. The Minister also touched on the Economic Recovery and Reconstruction Pla), and as part of the Plan, there is a Presidential Youth Employment Initiative, which was introduced as an employment stimulus based on the R100 billion allocation for job retention.


The Department of Science and Innovation has played an important role in mitigating the impact of Covid-19. In the wake of Covid-19, the Department set aside R69 million from the constrained budget, for research and related activities that were linked to tackle Covid-19. The money went towards funding since June 2020 for epidemiology of Covid-19. This research has led to the discovery of the first variant of Covid-19, which contributed globally in sensitising the global scientific community in the mutation of the virus. In addition, there was work led by the Human Sciences Research Council and the National Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, which have completed surveys and research on dealing with the attitude of the people towards Covid-19 and vaccines. This work has fed into the work of the National Coronavirus Command Council as well as the Department of Health to better respond to the pandemic. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research has set up a dashboard, which enables the Department to study how the pandemic was manifesting itself up to district level in the country. The dashboard reveals what is happening in each district. Lastly, an observatory was established to follow and track Covid-19.


Members asked about the Financial Aid Scheme’s vacancy rate; cases that were still under litigation and the costs therein; fundraising strategy; student funding appeals; Information and Communications Technology challenges and personnel incapacity; whether the Scheme funding model would be geared towards funding qualifications in demand to boost economic growth; frames and progress for the Technology Innovation Agency as well as reviews of the South African National Space Agency; renewal of tax incentives on research and development.


Members asked questions about the National Qualifications Framework Bill; reconfiguration of the structure; retrenched personnel at the Qualifications Authority.


Members also asked whether the District Development Model is properly highlighted in the Decadal Plan and whether it was linked to give expression to the White Paper on science and innovation.

Meeting Details

 Meeting Title: National Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, Science and Technology: NSFAS, SAQA & DSI 2021/22 Annual Performance Plans; with Minister and Deputy Minister
 Meeting Date: 5 May 2021
 Chairperson: Mr P Mapulane (ANC)
 Meeting Transcript:Access Here 
]]>Tue, 18 May 2021 09:27:13 +0000<![CDATA[Naledi Pandor to provide almost R1bn in debt relief for government-funded students]]>https://www.studentexperience.co.za/blogs/post/naledi-pandor-to-provide-almost-r1bn-in-debt-relief-for-government-funded-students

More than 50 000 government-funded university students are set to enjoy great debt relief and focus more on their studies after the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) committed close to R1bn to settle their outstanding fees. The department said on Sunday that Minister Naledi Pandor had allocated R967 million to settle the debts of continuing National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS)-funded students. 


This money will settle historic debts for 52 514 NSFAS-funded students currently studying. Pandor said the issue of historic debt owed to universities by these students has been of a concern raised by all stakeholders for some time. This comes following widespread students protests calling for free education and for the government to commit more funds to assist students who often found themselves unable to study due to affordability. 

Significant Contribution

“This is a significant contribution which will alleviate some of the debt owed to universities by students and is confirmation that government is sensitive to the plight of students from poor and working-class families,” she said. Pandor’s spokesperson, Lunga Ngqengelele, explained that the allocation is “specifically for those who have been funded on the previous funding scheme of NSFAS prior to the significantly improved funding support that began in 2018”. 


He added that the problem was compounded by the requirement for students to fund part of their costs through family or own funding and was not able to do so, hence the debt. Meanwhile, Pandor indicated that this is the first phase of the assessment of the historical debt owed to universities. “We have concluded the first phase of the due diligence and found that 52 514 NSFAS-qualifying students who were registered for the 2018 academic year owed universities R967 million,” 


Pandor said. Ngqengelele said historic refers to money owed to universities by continuing NSFAS-qualifying students who were registered for the 2018 academic year, were funded by NSFAS on a family income threshold of R122 000 per annum and met the academic-year-owed criteria to enable them to graduate within the minimum time plus two years. “The funding provided by NSFAS for these students was subject to a funding cap and often included an expected family contribution. 


As a result, the amount of funding provided by NSFAS was sometimes insufficient to cover the total actual feel and cost of study particularly at universities and programmes with high fees. This resulted in students accruing debt with their institution despite being funded by NSFAS,” he said. Pandor has made an appeal to “stakeholders in our society, particularly the private sector, to work with government and institutions in finding a solution for support to students from families that cannot afford to pay university study costs”. She said the government was working tirelessly on finding ways to relieve debt-burdened students towards developing a comprehensive student-funding solution to assist the “missing middle” students to fund their university studies. This article originally appeared on News24 and was authored by Poloko Tauby double clicking on a text box on your website. 

]]>Tue, 16 Apr 2019 21:24:08 +0000