NSFAS is the biggest funder of first-year students in the country and the most rejected application most learners will ever make. Both things are true for the same reason: it is done online, alone, at the end of a long year, with documents that belong to your parents.

Do you qualify?

  • You are a South African citizen or permanent resident.
  • Your combined household income is R350 000 a year or less. That is everyone in the house who earns, added together, before tax.
  • If you have a disability, the cap is R600 000.
  • If your household receives a SASSA grant, you qualify automatically on income. NSFAS checks with SASSA directly.
  • Household income between R350 001 and R600 000 does not get the bursary, but can qualify for the NSFAS loan scheme.
  • You are going to a public university or public TVET college, for a first undergraduate qualification, and nobody else is paying the full cost.

When

NSFAS opens applications in the second half of the year and closes them after matric results, usually in January. Treat the dates on nsfas.org.za as the only ones that count, and apply before the end of November so a document request does not land in the holidays. Late applications are only considered in registration week at your institution.

The document pack

  • Everyone: your South African ID (both sides of the smart card) or birth certificate if you are under 16.
  • Everyone: the ID of every parent, guardian or spouse in the household.
  • Everyone not on SASSA: proof of income for each earner. Three recent payslips, a UIF letter, or a sworn affidavit if unemployed.
  • Everyone: the NSFAS consent form, signed by you and by every parent or guardian named on it.
  • If it applies: death certificate of a parent, divorce decree, Disability Annexure A with a medical report, or the orphan declaration.
The consent form is where most applications die. It gives NSFAS permission to check your family's income with SARS and Home Affairs. Print it, get every signature, and scan all the pages into one clear PDF.

Five reasons applications are rejected

  1. Blurry or cropped uploads. If you cannot read it on your phone, NSFAS cannot read it either.
  2. An ID number with one wrong digit.
  3. An email address you no longer open. Outcomes go there.
  4. A missing parent signature on the consent form.
  5. No response to a document request within 30 days.

What NSFAS pays for

Tuition and registration, accommodation at an NSFAS-accredited residence or private lease up to an annual cap, a learning-materials allowance in first year, a monthly living allowance, and a transport allowance if you live at home within 40 km of campus. It pays the institution and the landlord directly; the allowances come to you.

On Scenda the Finances section asks the income question once, and the document vault holds the certified copies your specialist reuses for NSFAS and every bursary.