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50 signatures reached
To: Ernest Khosa - Chairperson of NSFAS
Tell NSFAS to re-award defunded students with funding.
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To the chairperson of NSFAS, As of the 2023 academic year, you announced the new pass criteria which included a credit pass rate of 55% for continuing students. This resulted in a huge number of students getting denied funding even for their final academic year. This new pass criteria is anti-poor and impractical. Whilst NSFAS claims that with this new pass criteria, it aims to encourage students to maintain dedication to their studies. Completely taking away their funding especially in their final year is not the way to go about it. This only leads to unqualified youth, further unemployment as well as perpetuated poverty. Our demands are simple:
- Re-award rejected continuing university students with funding.
- Re-award rejected continuing university students with funding.
Why is this important?
NSFAS is responsible for getting a number of poor students into university and many of them make it out university with qualifications, however, being a poor student is challenging enough. These individuals hardly receive adequate support towards their studies, which often leads to poor academic performance. For example, UNISA students often have to wait months before receiving their book allowance, this allowance, for many, supports them in various ways including academically. How is a student expected to pass assignments without access to required textbooks? These are some of the realities poor students are faced with, and in which lead to less to no academic progression. Students spoke of not being able to afford to pay for transport and being forced to walk 30 minutes to an hour to reach campus grounds. Another spoke of not having money to buy data to access coursework material placed online.
[1] In an interview with Inside Education, in 2021, Unisa Vice-Chancellor Puleng LenkaBula stated that Unisa is the largest university with the largest number of students who live below the poverty line and are supported by NSFAS. What happens when a great majority of these students are excluded from funding due to poor performance. This article further goes on to state that the result of students not receiving their allowances in time has resulted in students failing to complete assignments in time and failing final exams because of not having textbooks. And this can be seen happening annually. This new pass criteria is unfair and discriminatory. Especially for continuing university students who are in their final year. As such, NSFAS should re-award continuing students who were rejected due to academic ineligibility, to allow these students to at least conclude their studies.
Students that managed to obtain funding as first-tine students and maintained it up until their final year should not be cut off due to new pass criteria. This defeats the entire purpose of NSFAS. [2] “Non-white students were totally underrepresented at universities. This, and the high cost of university education led to the introduction of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) in 1991 to make higher education more affordable to poor students in South Africa”. Huge sums of money cannot be used towards a student only to ensure that they do not walk away with a qualification years later. Because we all know that the reality of that particular student will be the same, without money to finish off their studies, they will be forced into unemployment and gradual poverty. One cannot shy away from the fact that it is already hard enough to find a job in South Africa. Considering that these students are already coming from poor communities where families are dependent on the little they can scrape up to survive. So, even when one does manage to get a job, most of the money goes towards supporting their families and will less likely be used towards education.
The 2024 academic year will be beginning in a couple of months from now. During this period, until 31 January 2024, we can collectively take action which will influence the decision maker to make a decision in our favour. This will mean that excluded students will be able to register the following year and continue + complete their studies. But we will need to come together strongly to make this happen.
[1]Inside Education May 17, 2021
[2]Perspective Chapter: The Role NSFAS has Played to Facilitate Poor Students In South Africa, Pierre de Villiers, January 24th 2023.
[Image credits] https://www.gostudy.net/financial-aid/what-is-nsfas-funding-who-qualifies-how-do-i-apply
[1] In an interview with Inside Education, in 2021, Unisa Vice-Chancellor Puleng LenkaBula stated that Unisa is the largest university with the largest number of students who live below the poverty line and are supported by NSFAS. What happens when a great majority of these students are excluded from funding due to poor performance. This article further goes on to state that the result of students not receiving their allowances in time has resulted in students failing to complete assignments in time and failing final exams because of not having textbooks. And this can be seen happening annually. This new pass criteria is unfair and discriminatory. Especially for continuing university students who are in their final year. As such, NSFAS should re-award continuing students who were rejected due to academic ineligibility, to allow these students to at least conclude their studies.
Students that managed to obtain funding as first-tine students and maintained it up until their final year should not be cut off due to new pass criteria. This defeats the entire purpose of NSFAS. [2] “Non-white students were totally underrepresented at universities. This, and the high cost of university education led to the introduction of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) in 1991 to make higher education more affordable to poor students in South Africa”. Huge sums of money cannot be used towards a student only to ensure that they do not walk away with a qualification years later. Because we all know that the reality of that particular student will be the same, without money to finish off their studies, they will be forced into unemployment and gradual poverty. One cannot shy away from the fact that it is already hard enough to find a job in South Africa. Considering that these students are already coming from poor communities where families are dependent on the little they can scrape up to survive. So, even when one does manage to get a job, most of the money goes towards supporting their families and will less likely be used towards education.
The 2024 academic year will be beginning in a couple of months from now. During this period, until 31 January 2024, we can collectively take action which will influence the decision maker to make a decision in our favour. This will mean that excluded students will be able to register the following year and continue + complete their studies. But we will need to come together strongly to make this happen.
[1]Inside Education May 17, 2021
[2]Perspective Chapter: The Role NSFAS has Played to Facilitate Poor Students In South Africa, Pierre de Villiers, January 24th 2023.
[Image credits] https://www.gostudy.net/financial-aid/what-is-nsfas-funding-who-qualifies-how-do-i-apply
How it will be delivered
Using the hashtag #FundRejectedNsfasStudents on Twitter, we can engage, debate and create enough spark around this conversation. Tweet to NSFAS @myNSFAS using the hashtag. Add more pressure by directly writing to NSFAS at [email protected] on why this issue is important. This is why we need to start taking ACTION NOW. More us can also contact NSFAS via Whatsapp, voice notes will also create urgency +27 78 519 8006!