Cape Town - Some of the country’s universities are on a knife-edge over what student leaders have described as the failure of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) to address outstanding funding-related grievances.
A collective of Student Representative Councils (SRC) have accused NSFAS of being unresponsive to student grievances, and said they would flock to its offices today to hand over a memorandum rejecting certain funding criteria.
This comes as tertiary institutions across the country have been rocked by protest actions over the past weeks, with concerns from universities and colleges reaching Parliament.
The Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) was the most recently affected, having been forced to shut down campus activities and vacate residences after its properties were damaged.
“It is also important to note that it is currently impossible for students to get their queries pertaining to NSFAS resolved (timeously) and efficiently.
“This is due to the centralisation of processes and, as such, many issues remain unresolved,” said Stellenbosch University SRC secretary-general Phiwokuhle Qabaka.
“Moreover, it must be highlighted that this system has many flaws that are openly being picked up in the TVET (Technical Vocational Education and Training) sector.
”Allowing NSFAS and the service providers to take over the distribution of allowances will disadvantage a lot of students in the aspect of late payments and inconsistencies.”
UWC’s SRC president, Mandla-Onke Notyawa, said NSFAS also wanted to disadvantage the academic performance of students who were registered for less than 60 credits towards their qualification.
“This scheme has decided that this cohort of students is only eligible for a learning materials allowance, excluding them from meal and accommodation allowances.
“Noting that these affected students, like many other beneficiaries, come from disadvantaged backgrounds and are unable to get by without financial assistance, we are of the view that these affected students should be treated equally as the other beneficiaries in terms of receiving meal and accommodation allowance for their period of study.
“It is the same scheme that prohibits students from getting another form of funding while they are still funded by NSFAS but still strips them of food and accommodation allowances,” he said.
CPUT spokesperson Lauren Kansley said the university’s SRC along with management have met at least twice with the NSFAS leadership around some of the issues related to the recent protest action.
“It was a productive session and we appreciate the time taken to engage.
“These meetings went a long way to understanding some of the student frustrations and allowed the NSFAS leadership to explain its modus operandi.
“A return to campus will be communicated imminently,” she said.
NSFAS has not responded to questions that the Cape Times has sent regarding these matters.
South African Union of Students (SAUS) spokesperson Asive Dlanjwa said they noted the planned demonstration that came amid their attempts to get answers from the financial aid scheme.
“The union met with the national leadership of student political organisations and SRCs from across the country, where a meeting was convened at Stellenbosch University to deliberate on the issues.
“The concerns are legitimate, hence as SAUS we then met with NSFAS. However, we did not get solutions. One of the biggest problems is that NSFAS either does not give time frames or cannot commit to deadlines.
“In the past four months we have been lambasting and even raised the matter with Parliament, the portfolio committee on higher education. In all honesty it seems like the financial aid scheme is losing its capacity to be able to respond to some of the challenges.
“We resolved to engage the Higher Education Department, which has not responded yet.
“The department is not playing a decisive role it should play because NSFAS is an entity of the department,” said Dlanjwa.
Cape Times