The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) will open regional offices across the country to better serve millions of students who are the recipients of the scheme.
This is according to Dr Blade Nzimande, Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, who spoke to Sunday World in an exclusive interview during the New Generation of Academics Programme (nGAP) Colloquium held at Emperors Palace Convention Centre in Kempton Park, Ekurhuleni on Wednesday.
“We are going to be establishing regional NSFAS offices nationally,” said Nzimande. “We will start as of next year. If we can, this year.
“The details of where the first offices will be, will be worked out by NSFAS in consultation with us [the department].
“Students will be able to walk into any NSFAS regional offices to get information and get an update on any issue.”
Nzimande said the regional offices will greatly assist in dealing with the complaints that students have raised, noting that there are still capacity challenges at NSFAS which have resulted in delays in payment of allowances.
However, he said most of university and college students have received their allowances.
He explained: “NSFAS disburses R47-billion in one year. It is a huge responsibility. We still need to build more systems.
“Part of the problem by the way is the communication between NSFAS and institutions [of learning]. Some institutions do not send results to NSFAS on time to say that these are the qualifying students who are continuing, or these are the new students we have accepted.
“NSFAS says when you apply from September/October, that you do qualify for the scheme. But you won’t get it [funding] until you have passed and are admitted [to an institution of higher learning].
“So, it is administrative systems, ICT [information and communication technology] systems that we need to be developing. I’m working on NSFAS getting more money to build its capacity.
“There were people who attacked NSFAS for getting new offices. NSFAS has been in old offices for 20 years when they were disbursing R500-million.
“They are still in the same offices when they are disbursing R47-billion … where they need more space and they were way out of the city in Cape Town. They still are far being in Cape Town, but it is something we inherited.”
The colloquium featured participants who entered the programme in 2015 and 2016 and have since completed their six years in the programme and have attained their PhDs, with some even becoming associate professors.
The department said the nGAP is implemented in partnership with all 26 public universities to recruit highly capable scholars as new academics, against carefully designed and balanced equity considerations and disciplinary areas of greatest need.
The department said in a statement: “The most important feature of the programme is that scholars are appointed into permanent posts firmly rooted into long-term staffing plans right from the outset.
“The programme covers a six-year period for each cohort/phase taken onto the programme, covering a three-year development programme plus three years induction thereafter.”
The nGAP is one of the core staff development initiatives that are implemented by the department as part of Staffing South African Universities’ Framework under the University Capacity Development Programme.
The two-day colloquium kicked off on Wednesday with vice-chancellors and other senior university staff, nGAP lecturers and nGAP mentors sharing their experiences of being part of the programme.
The lecturers were also presented with awards by Nzimande.
The colloquium continues today with some lecturers presenting their research.
For more education news from Sunday World, click here.
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa.
