National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) Acting CEO, Wassem Carrim, on Thursday highlighted steady progress made by the student funding body in clearing backlogs and expanding access to funding for eligible students.
Carrim highlighted that more than 180 000 outstanding documents that were submitted to NSFAS, led to an additional 50 000 funding approvals, prior to the closing of the registration cycle.
The processing covers first-time entering students, returning university students and continuing Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) college students.
As a developmental fund that recognises South Africa’s complex social realities, NSFAS allows applicants with outstanding documentation an opportunity to resubmit, a process that has yielded significant results.
Carrim said teams have been working around the clock to address outstanding documents; an effort which has directly contributed to the approval of an additional 50 000 students for funding before the close of the registration cycle.
However, he noted that some students continue to upload incorrect, incomplete, or unclear documents, which creates a feedback loop between outstanding documents and NSFAS's ability to consider the applications.
“NSFAS encourages students to send clear, correct copies of documents requested,” Carrim said.
One of the sticky points in outstanding documents related to the consent form, which is used to obtain permission from an applicant’s parent or guardian to verify household income through third-party data sources.
The consent form is used to obtain income data and has specific requirements from which information is compulsory for NSFAS to obtain from the parent(s) or guardian(s) for them to deem the form valid.
The Acting CEO explained that applications are often delayed when consent forms are incomplete, unsigned, undated, or incorrectly completed.
Common issues include forms being signed by students instead of parents, missing dates, incomplete mandatory fields, or cases where consent is provided for only one parent when both parents are identified through Home Affairs records.
In instances where a different individual is listed on the application, Carrim said a declaration form is required to explain the relationship, and this individual must also complete and sign the consent form.
“NSFAS has to verify income, and this also then leads to the requirement of a declaration form if the individual the applicant is including is not the parent at Home Affairs. The relationship must be explained,” Carrim said.
Over 660 000 students approved for funding
On the overall funding outcomes for the 2026 application cycle, NSFAS has approved 660 039 applications for student funding, while 85 662 applications are currently in the process of verification, where outstanding documents have already been submitted.
A total of 116 266 applications have been rejected for not meeting eligibility criteria, while 21 483 applications still have outstanding documents.
In addition, 13 052 loan applicants have been offered bursaries after meeting the qualifying criteria.
For continuing university students, 436 924 students met the academic progression criteria, while 109 761 did not. A further 4 945 students have outstanding results.
“Outstanding results may be due to supplementary examinations. Institutions are encouraged to upload these results so students may have clarity on their funding statuses,” Carrim said.
The results for continuing Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) student results were received from 15 January 2026 and processed within seven days of receipt.
Of the 210 989 continuing TVET students, 127 503 met the academic progression criteria, 79 461 did not, and 4 025 cases remain under review.
Over 26 000 loan applications received
Carrim also gave an update on loan applications, confirming that 26 538 loan applications were received.
Of these, 4 609 were converted to bursaries after meeting qualifying criteria; 1 561 loans were approved, while 20 368 applications did not meet academic or financial eligibility requirements. – SAnews.gov.za
