The National Student Financial Aid Student (NSFAS) opened its funding application window on 28 September 2022 and will close applications on 31 January 2023.
The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) Minister Dr. Blade Nzimande had announced a few changes to this online application’s system, with the aim of preventing any glitches similar to those that took place in previous years.
South African Union of Students (SAUS) spokesperson, Asive Dlanjwa shared that some university students were not accepted for funding for the 2022 academic year due to such issues, as the system was preventing students from submitting the required documents needed to complete their application.
In an announcement, Nsfas stated:
Your application will not be processed without the relevant supporting documents.
For a student’s application to be successfully submitted, students need to ensure that they upload the correct supporting documents for the bursary scheme to process the application.
Applications are done online on the bursary scheme’s official application website. If students don’t have an existing profile, they are required to start by registering their profile.
If you’re struggling to register your profile, please follow these six easy steps:
- Once the student has created an account/profile and captured the required information, they must click on apply and the screen above appears. Students should fill in the father’s details, if the field applies to them and click next.
- Students should fill in the mothers’ details only if this field applies to them and click next, if this field does not apply to the student, they can click next.
- Married students with spouses should fill in the required details and click next, if this field does not apply to the student, they can click next.
- Students with guardians should fill in the required information and click next, if this field does not apply to the student, they can click next.
- Once the student has completed all required fields and steps, the student will be required to upload the necessary documents, upon completion the student can click next.
- Students should confirm if the details and documents uploaded are correct and submit.
It is then important for the student to fill the relevant sections in the application system correctly and attach all supporting documents.
Supporting documents will be submitted as certified copies that are not older than three months, certification can be done at the South African Police Service or the South African Post Office.
One of the documents that ought to be submitted include the proof of household income for a student that was dependent on a parent or guardian.
Students are required to write their SA ID number on each supporting document in order for the funding application to be processed, as Nsfas will not be processing applications without an ID number.
