![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/nsfas.jpg?resize=300%2C163&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\nRabia Mayet | rabiamayet@radioislam.co.za<\/p>\n
11 February 2025<\/p>\n
3 minute read<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The NSFAS student financial aid scheme is crucial in providing financial assistance to tertiary education students from low-income households so that they can access TZ Colleges and universities.<\/p>\n
The limitations of NSFAS have caused \u201csignificant distress\u201d amongst students enrolled at universities and colleges. The \u201cprimary problem,\u201d says Dr Lena Meyer, is their dependence on government funding which is being reduced yearly due to budget cuts. From the Department of Higher Education and Training\u2019s budget, more than 70% goes to NSFAS, causing an erosion in the university budgets. With \u201cmore and more money being allocated to NSFAS,\u201d there is less money for the operational budget of universities. The second issue is the way NSFAS is structured. They do not have access to data and information on students making validity questionable; and they are marred by \u201callegations of corruption, maladministration, and inefficiencies\u201d.<\/p>\n
Fundamental decisions need to be made like the question of whether NSFAS really is necessary, and can the \u201cmiddle man\u201d be cut out so that money can be paid directly to universities to administer bursaries for poor students.<\/p>\n
Dr Lena Meyer says that \u201cNSFAS as it stands currently is unsustainable\u201d because it works like a grant where there is no requirement for students to pay it back. NSFAS\u2019s main aim \u00a0should be to \u201cserve the needs of the needy people\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to make tough decisions,\u201d says Dr Meyer, to facilitate restructuring and fixing of the systemic challenges, for universities to operate effectively. \u201cIt is not getting better,\u201d she concluded, and stated that we cannot be \u201cproud of one of the best systems in the world that is so poorly managed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Listen to the full interview with Ml Sulaimaan Ravat on Sabahul Muslim.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rabia Mayet | rabiamayet@radioislam.co.za 11 February 2025 3 minute read The NSFAS student financial aid scheme is crucial in providing financial assistance to tertiary education students from low-income households so that they can access TZ Colleges and universities. The limitations of NSFAS have caused \u201csignificant distress\u201d amongst students enrolled at universities and colleges. The \u201cprimary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":95015,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[35,28,4995],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sabaahul-muslim","category-latest-news","category-south-africa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/nsfas.jpg?fit=309%2C163&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc0QIf-oIu","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-19 09:40:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}