Date: 19/04/2007

Source: Department of Education

Title: Pandor: National Student Financial Aid Scheme Annual Awards

Address by the Minister of Education, Naledi Pandor, MP, at the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) Annual Awards, Lagoon Beach Hotel, Milnerton, Cape Town

Chairperson and board of NSFAS
Financial aid staff
Vice chancellors
Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Allan Taylor and NSFAS staff
Distinguished guests

It is a great pleasure for me to address the NSFAS awards evening dinner once again.

It is appropriate that we congratulate all those who have contributed to the success of NSFAS.

The establishment of NSFAS was an acknowledgment that higher education (HE) in South Africa cannot be free. But at the same time it was an acknowledgment that government was committed to widening participation in HE by providing financial aid to qualifying students who would not be able study further without financial support.

NSFAS is and I say this without fear of contradiction the most successful scheme established by the government since 1996.

Last year, in 2006, NSFAS awarded R1,36 billion to 107 586 students (one in seven students is a NSFAS loaner).

Since 1991, NSFAS has made over one million loan awards.

It is a measure of NSFAS's success that three in four NSFAS recipients graduate and that 3 in 10 loans are converted into bursaries.

This year NSFAS has undertaken three important new initiatives.

First, the Department has announced details of plans to increase the number of new teachers trained in our higher education institutions (HEIs). R700 million has been allocated over the next three years to the Fundza Lushaka bursary scheme, which NSFAS will administer.

NSFAS will also assist in developing a system to monitor the recipients of the bursaries to ensure that they either work back or pay back the bursaries in line with the criteria set by the Department.

The introduction of Fundza Lushaka bursaries will go a long way to addressing the challenge that we face in our schools.

Second, NSFAS will also be administering social work bursaries in a similar manner to that of teacher bursaries.

Third, in line with the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) initiative and Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) objectives, R600 million has been set aside over the next three years to fund Further Education and Training (FET)-college students. This is not a loan scheme but a bursary scheme. The bursaries will be non-repayable. Government is sending an important message to the public in differentiating HE loans from further education bursaries.

The involvement of NSFAS in these three different initiatives, aimed at improving our skills distribution, is slowly beginning to address our intention of establishing a single award granting institution which will be responsible for the distribution of funds to all students.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the NSFAS board for providing the necessary support and guidance to make sure that all these initiatives become a success.

In addition to the ongoing funding commitments to HE, government has allocated significant new resources for the sector in the coming period.

This follows closely on the recapitalisation funds already allocated for institutional restructuring.

Much of the new investment is in the development and renewal of infrastructure in our public universities, including the provision of new teaching and learning facilities.

As you know, it has been a long time since the government has been able to invest in capital development in HE.

However, this boost to HE has come at the right time to support the sector's growing contribution to the country's human resource development needs in priority areas.

I am also very pleased that, at last, we are able to invest in improving student residence facilities especially in our rural universities and in the historically disadvantaged institutions and campuses. I have no doubt the improvements to the quality of student life will impact positively on the quality of academic outputs.

I have provided targeted support to engineering faculties in order to improve graduate outputs in this crucial area. Such support will enable faculties to increase their student intakes and to importantly provide the level of academic development needed for successful throughput.

The enrolment planning process that has been underway for sometime now has also culminated in agreements between the Department and individual universities on student enrolments for the coming period.

I hope that this certainty will provide the stable climate needed for proper planning in HE.

What more can NSFAS do to support students?

First, how can we more successfully link NSFAS support to university success? The scheme must not become an incentive to succeed late.

Second, given the critical skills imperatives facing South Africa, how can we utilise the funding to provide key skills while also encouraging support for potential.

Third, it is clear that the character and levels of poverty manifest in varying forms at different institutions. Does NSFAS deal with poverty in a coherent, fair and defensible manner?

Last, many school leavers seem unaware of NSFAS. More can be done to spread the word in schools.

In closing, I would like to reemphasise my request for advanced planning so as to avoid the perennial disruptions that we have at the beginning of the academic year. There are institutions that have made progress in this regard. I urge the others to join in so as to change the image of our financial aid offices.

I would like to congratulate all those individuals and institutions that are recognised here tonight. It is through your commitment and determination that we have been able to succeed with our financial aid scheme.

Issued by: Department of Education
19 April 2007