Poor students get improved access to aid
Social grant recipients are now automatically eligible for National Student Financial Aid Scheme loans
Students from poor families have received a boost after Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini announced on Tuesday that academically deserving social grant recipients will automatically be eligible for the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS). The multibillion-rand government higher education funding scheme has teamed up with the Department of Social Development to provide more support to students who receive social grants. Dlamini said in December that matriculants who received a social grant and who were accepted at an institution of higher learning would no longer go through a means test to qualify for financial aid from NSFAS. Dlamini said on Tuesday that of more than 188,000 grant beneficiaries who wrote matric exams in 2016, about 83% qualified to attend either university or a college.
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