NSFAS Funding/Bursary Requirements (2023)

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National Student Financial Aid Scheme helps qualified students in South Africa apply for loans or bursary to help their learning journey while in school. Governed by the NSFAS Act, the administrators are all out to provide financial assistance to students who are from homes that are not too capable of sending wards to higher institutions.

Beneficiaries of the NSFAS funding will be assisted all through their stay in school. Nevertheless, bursary holders are required to work in the country for a specified period after graduation. 

NSFAS Bursary Requirements and Eligibility

First, you must be a citizen of South Africa and desire to pursue studies at a public university or TVET college. If you have applied before now and have been given an application reference number, you should not apply again. Also, if you are a recipient of any NSFAS funding for the current academic year, you should not apply again.

It should be noted that for postgraduate studies, only the students of the following fields are accepted in the allowance system:

  1. B Tech – Architecture/Architectural TechnologyB Tech – Biokinetics/Biomedical Technology/Biotechnology
  2. Postgraduate Certificate in Education
  3. Postgraduate Diploma in Accounting
  4. Bachelor of Laws/LLB

Requirements And Eligibility For a TVET College NSFAS Funding/Bursary Application:

First, you must be registered at a public South African TVET college, as well as for the National Certificate (vocational). You are to also be registered for some Report 191 (NATED) programmes like N1-N6 in engineering and N4-N6 in all other fields.

How to Apply and Application Details

You can either apply online (via the internet) or offline (physically). We will explore both methods here:

  1. Online Application:
  2. You should first Register online as a user on myNSFAS or re-register a myNSFAS account. Launch the website www.nsfas.org.za on your browser, either from your smartphone or computer (although a computer should be better).
  3. Click on “myNSFAS” tab on your screen, and “Register”.
  4. Engage the box to allow the officials to verify your details, and input your ID number on the field. Ensure you do this as it is stated on your ID document
  5. You should then input your full names and surname as per your ID number, and also add your current email address (ensure it’s a working email address as you confirm what you added).
  6. You should then add your cellphone number
  7. Proceed to create a password and Confirm 
  8. Upload your ID Copy (which means a scanned copy should be available already).
  9. When you are done with all of these, you should then click on the register
  10. If you have done the right things, you should see an OTP both inside your email address (the one you used during registration) and your phone number. You have to input the OTP in the appropriate field before it expires (which is after 24 hours).
  11. With these, you have now completed your re-registration
  12. The next major step is to click the APPLY tab so as you can be directed to the online 2021 application form.
  13. You are to upload the following documents:
  14. Your South African identity document/card or an unabridged birth certificate
  15. IDs of parents and/or guardian (death certificate if applicable)
  16. IDs of each person living in your household
  17. Any household proof of income (not older than three months)
  18. Academic results
  19. University registration documents
  20. Travel and Accommodation documents (if applicable)
  21. Proof of marital status (if applicable)
  22. You should then download and complete the consent form and fill it in with the signatures of all those whose incomes have been declared in the application.

For people with a disability, they are to download and complete the Disability Annexure. 

  • Offline Application:

As stated earlier, you can choose to either apply online or offline. If you are applying offline, simply go to your provincial/office to get started. You will receive a hard copy of the application form to fill in.

Related:

As part of the NSFAS funding requirements, make sure you make use of black ink to complete the application form and write within the blocks with CAPITAL letters only. Your parents/guardians have to sign the consent form too. Don’t also forget to have certified copies of the listed supporting documents and see to it that you attach them to the application form by stapling before submission.