The size of the 2022 matric cohort – 921,879 pupils, made up of 753,964 full-time and 167,915 part-time candidates – is expected to increase pressure for places at universities and technical and vocational education and training colleges, as well as push up demand for student financial aid for tertiary studies.
THE INDIVIDUAL results of the Class of 2022 – the largest cohort of matric pupils to date in South Africa – were released at examination centres on Friday.
The size of the cohort – 921,879 pupils, made up of 753,964 full-time and 167,915 part-time candidates – is expected to increase pressure for places at universities and technical and vocational education and training colleges, as well as push up demand for student financial aid for tertiary studies.
In November 2022, the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), the financial support scheme for tertiary students in South Africa, said it forecast a 7% increase in bursary applications for 2023. However, NSFAS also said it expected a funding shortfall of R1.5 billion.
In a presentation to the National Assembly’s portfolio committee on higher education, science and innovation, NSFAS said it had budgeted R40 billion for 559,226 students at a cost of R69,987 per student in the new year. Of these, 394,115 will be applications from continuing students and 165,111 from new applicants, including 156,080 new first-time students and 9,031 senior students.
Regarding TVETs, the fund expects 337,224 students to apply for bursaries in 2023, costing R8.8 billion, with a R1.9 billion shortfall. The fund expects to provide bursaries for 250,000 students at 50 TVETs and 26 universities, with about 550,000 beneficiaries at 26 public universities.
NSFAS will make direct payments of allowances into student bank accounts via four Fintech companies engaged to assist with the disbursement of funds.
For the university sector, three institutions –Unisa, the University of Fort Hare, and the University of Limpopo – were approached by NSFAS for them to run a pilot scheme to test the system. However, NSFAS said the current challenges, relating to the existing methods, required mainly the use of beneficiaries’ personal information and contact details to function.
Beneficiaries were subsequently targeted because of unlawful means being available to obtain such information. Thus, problems became prevalent, such as persons obtaining unauthorised access to beneficiary allowances. Fraudsters solicited beneficiary information through social engineering, fraudulent websites, and social media pages. Insufficient cybersecurity had been in place, resulting in beneficiary data being exposed and allowances stolen.
To streamline the process of allowance payments, the scheme sought a secure solution to ensure that all NSFAS beneficiaries received their allowances directly from NSFAS, ensuring they were paid on time. The process is in place and will commence soon.
Professor Marianna Phutsisi, the president of the SA Public Colleges Organisation, said it was concerned that NSFAS still had no plan to pay a project management fee to colleges to administer student allowances. This could result in student unrest.
Student protests at the start of the academic year have become a feature of the South African tertiary education landscape, often because of a lack of financial aid for poor students. The South African Union of Students said student representative councils had raised concerns about NSFAS preparations for the 2023 academic year.
These included delays in putting systems in place to implement changes in the NSFAS process, as well as the timely release of student allowances. This information was first published on the Africa page of the University World News website.
