Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande says the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has selected 40 institutions across the nine provinces for its pilot for private accommodation in 2024.
“The total number of accommodation providers or properties that have been accredited through the NSFAS portal is 3 309,” Nzimande said.
He said the accredited properties were linked to TVET colleges and or universities in the pilot as per the minimum norms and standards on student housing.
“To date a total number of 2 145 are linked to TVETs and 3 901 linked to universities.”
Nzimande was responding to parliamentary questions from EFF and Freedom Front+ MPs.
According to Nzimande, NSFAS had proposed that 23 TVET colleges and 17 universities be part of the accommodation pilot programme in the 2024 academic year.
Asked about the contractual value of each service provider and the duration of each contract, the minister said there was no single contractual value as they were dependent on the outcome of the grading of each property.
“All offer letters that have been accepted by landlords are for a duration of three years.”
Nzimande said NSFAS had started paying some accommodation providers from March 15 and catch-up payments were still being processed as these were based on the registration data received from the tertiary institutions.
“All remittances are expected to be done by the end of April or May when all payments are up to date,” he said.
Asked what were the reasons that some institutions, such as the Sol Plaatje University, were not implementing the pilot programme, Nzimande said the university was part of the pilot programme.
“NSFAS continues to engage Sol Plaatje University on the implementation of the project and the university has since confirmed that it has implemented the project at 95%. NSFAS is keeping a close eye on the university.”
Responding to a question about landlords supplying student accommodation not paid at the Vaal University of Technology in 2023, Nzimande said the bursary scheme did not have any landlords for the university providing accommodation for NSFAS-financed students last year.
However, NSFAS was made aware in December 2023 that the university had unaccredited landlords providing accommodation to some NSFAS beneficiaries in 2023.
“NSFAS, however, intervened to assist the institution until the matter was resolved in February 2024, where the institution started processes to pay landlords who have leases with confirmed funded students.
“On 13 March 2024, NSFAS was informed of the pending payments of funded students who were residing in accredited accommodation. NSFAS is awaiting the institution to provide the list of those students to verify them on the system,” Nzimande said.
Last month, the “Cape Times” reported that the Higher Education Department made an application to the National Treasury for funding to build university and college-owned student accommodation.
Nzimande said they took the step because there were challenges regarding the government’s dependency on private sector student accommodation.
He said: “Already we have made an application to the Treasury. I have got the list of the number of beds applied for throughout the 26 public universities and 50 TVET colleges.”
Cape Times