Treasury cuts NSFAS funding by R13 billion
The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has announced that it will cut R13 billion from its budget.
The National Treasury’s decision to cut the National Student Financial Aid Scheme funding by R13 billion has been described as an attack on poor students who are seeking to further their studies.
NSFAS Spokesperson Ishmael Mnisi said “NSFAS is this year is funding more than 1.1 million students, and in terms of our outlook, we might have to decrease the numbers, provided that we don’t find any additional income within the sector to augment the amount that would have been cut by Treasury. However, our commitment is an increase as far as the allowance is concerned.
“We fund students for their registration fees, tuition, learning material, living allowance, and accommodation. We are not going to reduce the funding for those receiving funding from us. However, we might be able to reduce numbers provided that we don’t find any other money.”
The South African Union of Students said reducing the budget was counterproductive.
“You would have thought that at the very least of all their measures they would increase and not decrease spending on higher education so that we deal with issues of employability and unemployment,” said union spokesperson Asive Dlanjwa.
NSFAS has made R41.9 billion for 2023/2024 and R43.7 billion for 2025/2026 for universities. R9.7 billion for 2024 and R10 billion for 2025 will be made available for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges. Mnisi noted that the budget cuts announced by the Treasury will affect the higher education landscape.
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