The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) is a programme that runs annually geared towards supporting select South African students from financially unstable households and providing them with funds.
Students have to apply to NSFAS through the official website first before checking whether or not their applications have been accepted.
NSFAS is backed by the government and it gives some students a chance to study and to make the most of their lives despite their humble beginnings.
Oftentimes, students expect a response to their application for study funding NSFAS a few days after the application deadline. However, you may not get one for many reasons, one of which is if NSFAS is doing maintainable work on its website.
At this point, you have to manually check it out, and here is how to go about it.
- Visit the official NSFAS website http://nsfas.org.za/content/ to begin.
- Click on MyNSFAS account.
- Use the username ID and password that you created when you were applying for NSFAS funds to login.
- Then click Sign in.
- Next, click on Track funding progress. As the name suggests, this step will help you know whether or not NSFAS will find you.
When checking your NSFAS application, you will undoubtedly come across words whose meaning you do not understand. Here is a list of those words and their meaning.
- Application Submitted
The NSFAS system has successfully received your application.
- Filtering
This means the system checks if you have any previous qualifications and if you are a returning student.
- Validation
At this point, the NSFAS is diligently working with the South African Social Security Agency. SASSA distributes social grants to deserving people on behalf of the Department of Social Development. Additionally, the NSFAS works with the Department of Home Affairs at this stage.
- Evaluation
The NSFAS is going through all the documents you submitted during the application process to verify them (to check their authenticity).
- Funding Eligibility
The NSFAS is carefully verifying the financial status of your household which you wrote while applying. It is to check if you truly fall within the eligible category.
Awaiting Academic
- Results/Admissions
NSFAS is reviewing your institution admission status and your academic results to see if you meet the NSFAS eligibility criteria for funding. At this stage, the NSFAS has to wait for information from your previous school.
- Awaiting registration
NSFAS is receiving information from your school to help them in creating a bursary agreement. The speed at which NSFAS completes this process depends on the tour school sends the data.
- Signing of agreement
Sign your bursary agreement so that NSFAS can shell out your allowances which can cover books, tuition, accommodation, feeding, transport, etc.
- Payments
At this point, you will receive your allowance either through your institutions or your NSFAS mobile wallet system.
Kindly contact NSFAS if the status of your application is “Provisionally Funded”. NSFAS is responsible for the application process and all other outcomes.
Finally, consistently monitor the MyNSFAS portal for updates.