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14 August 2020 | Story Amanda Tongha | Photo NSFAS
Applications for the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) 2021 are now open.  

The NSFAS application cycle will run for a period of four months starting from 3 August to 30 November 2020. 

NSFAS applications are open to students from poor and working-class backgrounds who wish to further their studies at any public Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) college or university. To qualify for NSFAS funding, the applicant must be a South African citizen; come from a family with a combined annual household income of not more than R350 000; for students with a disability, a combined annual household income of not more than R600 000. 

Applications for 2021 funding will be completed online via the myNSFAS portal as per previous years. 

New applicants need a copy of their ID or birth certificate to register and create a myNSFAS account or profile on the myNSFAS portal. Applicants with existing accounts must log on to their accounts to complete an application. Applicants are not allowed to create more than one profile on the portal. The applicant will be required to give consent to NSFAS to verify their personal information with third parties and will not be able to create a profile without giving this consent. This feature allows NSFAS to conduct a three-step verification process with the Department of Home Affairs (DHA), where an ID number will be linked to the name and surname of the applicant and the parents' details. 

In response to the status quo due to the COVID-19 pandemic, applicants will not be required to submit or upload the consent form; however, they will have to grant consent electronically during the application process, along with accepting the terms and conditions for funding. 

Applicants will, however, still be required to submit their supporting documents, comprising a copy of own ID; parents’/guardian's proof of income; copies of parents’/guardian's ID; and/or Annexure A for applicants with disabilities. 

Qualifying students are urged to make use of this opportunity and apply for funding in time. 

 
 

News Archive

Update on the Review of the Language Policy of the UFS
2015-11-26

On 5 June 2015, the Council of the University of the Free State (UFS) mandated Management to conduct a review of the Language Policy. The University Management Committee (UMC) then established a Language Committee to undertake a comprehensive review of the existing parallel-medium policy and to make recommendations on the way forward with respect to the university's Language Policy.

The Language Committee has now completed its work and the review report and its recommendations were presented to the UMC, the Executive Committee of Senate (ECS), as well as the full Senate. Each of these bodies debated the report and its recommendations and the views of these various structures will be presented to Council on 4 December 2015.

Council will study the report of the Language Committee and deliberate on the recommendations and views of these different university bodies ahead of, and at its December 2015 meeting. At that meeting, Council will then decide whether or not to accept the findings and recommendations of the Language Committee.

Should Council decide that - having reviewed the committee report - a new Language Policy must be developed, it would then mandate that such a policy should be designed and presented to itself as the highest decision-making authority of a university. In that case, the new Language Policy would have to be presented again to the UMC and Senate for voting purposes and that vote would be formally presented to Council at one of its meetings in 2016. The Institutional Forum, a statutory body that represents all university stakeholders, would also at that point advise Council, per its mandate, on a new Language Policy.

In the event that a new Language Policy is accepted by Council in 2016, the earliest possible date for implementation would be January 2017.

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