The Focus on NSFAS, and Not College Applications, is Why Many Students Don’t Get to College
Every year, thousands if not millions of students in South Africa close another chapter of their high school lives, hoping to enter college to further their education. They picture walking into college and university facilities, obtaining their credentials, and improving their own and their communities’ lives. Unfortunately, many of these dreams and aspirations are short-lived. By the time the institutions of higher learning release their acceptance lists, many matriculate are left without a slot in any tertiary institution and this is not due to any academic failures either. This is because the students, during the critical period, misdirected their focus during the application period. The biggest contributor to this situation is the early and prevalent focus on applying to the National Students Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) without having any university or college place secured.
The focus on NSFAS, and not college applications, is why many students do not get to college. This has been seen as a social and education problem of misplaced focus and misunderstanding and lack of information that needs to be addressed.
To grasp why many students become trapped, we first examine NSFAS together with the role it plays in South Africa’s education system. NSFAS is a government-funded financial aid scheme designed to assist students from low-income families to obtain tertiary education. It covers the cost of tuition, accommodation, learning materials, and in some cases, covers living allowances. For a lot of young South Africans, NSFAS is not just financial aid; it is the only possible gateway to access higher education.
Nonetheless, NSFAS’s accessibility and importance make many unknowing learners think they only need to apply for NSFAS, and then everything else will take care of itself. In some schools, particularly in rural or under-resourced areas, students receive more information about applying to NSFAS than college or university admissions. Initiating an institutional application is often forgotten or done at the last second, while the emphasis is heavily placed on community funding applications by teachers, community leaders, and peers.
Common Mistake: Applying for NSFAS without applying for admission.
Students often apply for NSFAS thinking it will give them automatic access to a college or university. Once NSFAS is approved, that pupil will be equated to a student in an educational institution, which, sadly, is untrue. Students must understand that once they apply to an institution, they are done. NSFAS is only a funding system, not an admission system. It will provide funding only after a student is accepted by an institution registered in the system.
NSFAS gets applications in the hundreds of thousands every year. However, many fail to enroll at any institution as NSFAS applicants because they did not apply to institutions as per official standards. Before and after matrics are always the busiest and the most stressful periods for learners. However, for universities and TVET colleges, closing dates for applications are often set months before the results are released. Many learners, and especially those coming from schools with little career guidance, often miss those critically important dates while focused only on completing the NSFAS forms.
Once students realize they need to also apply for admission, it is often too late, and applications are closed, leaving students with sanctioned funding and no place to utilize it—a heartbreaking reality.
Why This Happens: Misinformation and Lack of Guidance.
This is due to the lack of both information and systemic support. This is particularly difficult for disadvantaged students, many of whom are the first in their family to apply to any high education experience, to develop an accurate understanding of what is happening in higher education. When students cannot rely on informed family members to interpret the system for them, students naturally turn to schools for relevant information. Unfortunately, not every school has a career advisor, and many do not have even the basic materials to help students understand the complex levels of higher education and what is involved in the financial aid process.
In some schools, career advising consists of a couple of short career sessions in Grade 12 at the end of the academic year when many applications have already closed, and students often do not know what to do next. They understand that NSFAS is funding scholarships, but they do not understand that they must have a funding authorization letter to access it. Instead, they are left developing unrealistic expectations, wasting their time, and growing frustrated all because they have not fully understood how the system works.
The Psychological Factor: The Fear of Financial Exclusion
The fear of inability to afford tertiary education is another contributing factor. Many learners spend all their energy on securing funding because they believe money is the only barrier to education. The thought of getting into a university and figuring out payment is the most terrifying thing one can face. To learners, it seems more logical to settle the financial post first, and worry about the study location later.
This fear is, more often than not, misguided. NSFAS cannot pay funds without an admission offer. The default approach is always to apply to admission first, then apply to NSFAS later. Fear, coupled with a lack of guidance, tends to default this order.
The Ramifications: A Constant Cycle of Missed Chances
The ramifications of this erroneous focus are plentiful. Every year, hundreds of students are forced into taking “gap years” not by choice, simply because they did not secure a space on time. However, for a portion of these students, this gap year becomes a permanent state of disengagement from education, losing motivation, drifting into easy casual work and often never returning to their aspirations of academia.
This also puts undue pressure on institutions during registration. Every January, universities and TVET colleges receive large volumes of “walk-in” applicants trying to squeeze into remaining spaces. These scenes frequently make the news, with students camping outside a campus hoping they will be given a chance. In most cases these are the same students who engaged with NSFAS first instead of trying to secure a space for admission.
How to Address the Issue: Steps Toward Better Awareness Addressing this concern requires collaboration between government, schools and the community. Below are some items to think about that could help:
1. Career cognizance must begin in schools earlier than Grade 12
Career education should begin well before Grade 12, by at least Grade 10 learners should understand the fundamentals of how to apply for tertiary – timelines, entry qualifications, financial aid systems, etc. Schools should work the knowledge into the curriculum or hold periodic workshops.
2. Communication clarity from NSFAS and Institutions
Let’s simplify and clarify our admission processes amongst NSFAS and our institutions. information campaign applications should clearly states that NSFAS funds does not equal automatic admission.
3. Community Information Sessions
Providing information sessions in local municipalities, libraries, and/or youth, can equip students and their parents with the best process to take when trying to gain access to higher education.
4. Online Platforms and Social Media Awareness
In the digital age, social media can serve as a great facilitator. Simple, straightforward infographics about “How to Apply for University and NSFAS in the Right Order” could help save a lot of people from making mistakes that will cost them significantly.
5. Teachers need to be informed about a new state of play in tertiary, admission, and funding processes, and given the necessary resources to be able to help learners reconstruct that pathway to tertiary education.
Abstract: Turning the Clock Around, Making the Dream a Reality
The opportunity of a tertiary education should not be lost in obtaining conflicting, confusing, and misleading information. Every student deserves a fair chance to obtain a place at a university college, and that fair chance is contingent upon the steps taken toward admission, sequentially, in the right order. An application to NSFAS is crucial — but it should never come before a place at an institution.
By moving from a collective, “funding first” approach to a “admission first” approach, South Africa has the potential to sustainably prevent thousands of capable young people from slipping through the cracks each year. As learners become more aware of their options, and consider various avenues in their transitions to tertiary education, that pathway will become clearer through again a better understanding of the role of financial aid in their future. Just as importantly, short-term ambition —rather than long-term ambition — should define future financial aid opportunity.