The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) admitted that it was unprepared to take over the management of student accommodation for funded students.
NSFAS launched an accommodation pilot project to enhance the availability of accredited housing for students at 17 South African universities and 23 TVET colleges. This project is part of NSFAS's shift to ensure safer, quality student housing by working directly with accredited private providers, accessible through a new digital portal.
The scheme’s newly appointed acting CEO Waseem Carrim revealed that NSFAS launched its student accommodation pilot without conducting proper feasibility studies, risk assessments, or establishing clear policy and legal frameworks.
This resulted in widespread challenges and complaints from students, institutions, and landlords.
Carrim acknowledged that the current system has two significant challenges. This includes a general shortage of safe student housing and an inefficient allocation process.
The current system does not allocate student accommodation in an effective and efficient manner.
In cases where there are not enough beds available for students at their institutions, NSFAS forwards the payments to students, which they must use to find a place to live while they study.
There are insufficient beds, which means we end up paying the students an allowance and say, go and find your own accommodation, which is not a good way to run the system.
Steps To Resolve Immediate Challenges
Carrim confirmed that NSFAS is finalising the 2024 reconciliation of unpaid accommodation and managing claims and appeals. This process is set to conclude by 31 May 2025.
In March, NSFAS directlypaid accommodation allowances to 12,000 students. NSFAS now requires coordination with stakeholders to ensure that students pay their landlords.
In March, 12,000 students were paid accommodation allowances directly, and we are having to work with students, institutions, and landlords to ensure these are paid over to landlords.
The CEO added that the lack of a guiding policy around student accommodation has resulted in individual disputes that have manifested at several institutions.
An example of this is the ongoing disputes between the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) and private landlords. TUT is partly participating in the accommodation pilot programme, which has led to confusion regarding the accreditation of private accommodation facilities.
NSFAS has also approved a R25,000 annual cap on unaccredited accommodation. Carrim said this was done to ensure landlords have an incentive to upgrade their accommodations to meet the accreditation standards.
Carriem said student accommodation management has shifted to the CEO’s office. This move was made at the beginning of April.
From 1 April, the student accommodation function was reallocated out of the Corporate Services unit to the CEO’s office to implement the directive on student accommodation.
ENS Africa is also conducting a legal review of the accommodation pilot to clarify NSFAS’s role and responsibilities.
Discussions with USAF and SAPCO are planned to develop a transitional framework for institutions to resume responsibility for accommodation by 2026. Carrim said it was important that the transfer of this function is done in a way that is fair, equitable, and transparent.
We would like the function to go back to institutions but we have to do it in a way that's fair, equitable and transparent: that doesn't seem to be just shifting the problem from the NSFAS to institutions, where we come up with a solution that resolves the ongoing challenges for the long term.