SOUTH AFRICAN FURTHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING STUDENT ASSOCIATION PRESENTATION ON THE NATIONAL STUDENT FINANCIAL AID SCHEME 1

TABLE OF CONTENT PROGRESS ON STAKEHOLDERS ENGAGEMENT. SAFETSA’S CONTRIBUTION ON EARLY DISBURSMENT OF STUDENTS ALLOWANCES. AVAILABILITY OF RESOURCES TO ASSIST STUDENTS IN APPLICATIONS AND SIGNING OF SOP’s. IMPROVEMENT OF COMMUNICATION CHANNELS BETWEEN NSFAS AND COLLEGES. ROADMAP IN ENSURING SMOOTH PROCESS TOWARD 2019 ACADEMIC YEAR. CONCLUSION

PROGRESS ON STAKEHOLDERS ENGAGEMENT. We are struggling to continuously meet with more relevant stakeholders in the higher education space because of the unavailability of resources and this is the same predicament that is facing SAUS. Out of our engagements with the leadership of SACPO and TVETCGC, we are working on meeting next week Friday to discuss NSFAS related issues and further submit our position as the TVET stakeholders to the Minister and the PCHET. A deployment list of NEC members to different provinces was emailed to DHET. The intention is to have provincial dialogues with Student Representative Council members and visit campuses in order for the NEC to have a practical understanding of day to day frustrations that are faced by NSFAS beneficiaries. We had a workshop with NSFAS this year on the 14th of May 2018 and the purpose of the workshop was for us to get a sense of what are the challenges faced by NSFAS so that we can work as a collective in trying to address them, to get an update on the 2018 application process, NSFAS allowance disbursement process (SBUX), communication platforms (solicit and outreach) and contact centre walk-through, however during the workshop some of the critical questions we asked were never responded to our satisfaction. Visibility of NSFAS in campuses is still a challenge because NSFAS is more visible when colleges are burning. We further wish to again appeal to the TVET stakeholder relations manager of NSFAS that he communicates the recommendations we submitted during our several engagements to his superiors so that they can be able to make a decision. We still submit to the portfolio committee that we want NSFAS to get closer to students and not for the entity to only operate at central level in Cape Town.

SAFETSA’S CONTRIBUTION ON EARLY DISBURSMENT OF STUDENTS ALLOWANCES. This is our day to day work in consultation with NSFAS and TVET Colleges in trying to make sure that students are receiving their allowances in time, however this process is still not running smooth because of the unavailability of financial support. Our Marketing and Communications desk is currently working towards ensuring that we are accessible to students through social media platforms and further convince SRC members to be the custodians of this initiative at campus level. The intention is not for us to operate on a social platform but to use the influence of this popular social platform to get to know of students that are not funded on time and get to intervene immediately.

AVAILABILITY OF RESOURCES TO ASSIST STUDENTS IN APPLICATIONS AND SIGNING OF SOP’s Our responsibility is to work/oversee all 50 TVET Colleges, however we do not have any resources made available to our disposal in order for us to reach out to students in various institution and monitor the process of applications and signing of SOP’s, however in our respective institutions we are able to intervene when necessary. We further recommend that SRC’s be trained on how to work with this system and be the custodians of this important process. We firmly believe that this process would run smooth with a revised administration process in our TVET Colleges with the support of the Department of Higher Education and Training.

IMPROVEMENT OF COMMUNICATION CHANNELS BETWEEN NSFAS AND COLLEGES From where we are standing, there is no improvement and we believe that the stakeholder relations manager responsible for TVET should create the long-overdue direct communication between SRC members and the entity. Students are also not satisfied with the client service they are getting from NSFAS. The sooner we decentralize NSFAS the better the communication and administration.

ROADMAP IN ENSURING SMOOTH PROCESS TOWARD 2019 ACADEMIC YEAR In our last meeting with the stakeholder relations manager for TVET and the Executive Office of NSFAS we reached consensus that NSFAS will be responsible for joint road shows where we will be meeting with SRC’s and students when necessary. We are in a process of collecting data from Colleges so that prior the 2019 planning process, we have a better understanding on areas that requires improvement. What we also seek to achieve before the 2019 process kicks-in is to make sure that students understand the mandate of NSFAS and also for them to understand the importance of key role players (DHET,SAFETSA and SRC’s) in this regard. We are also in a process of visiting few rural high schools (open days) in partnership with TVET Colleges and NSFAS to engage Grade 12 students on the process of application.

We are still calling for the decentralisation of NSFAS. CONCLUSION We are willing to work with NSFAS and DHET to make NSFAS more functional for the benefit of the poor students. We are calling for the reviewal of NSFAS Internal policies and systems to insure the smooth running of the entity in the best interest of students. We are still calling for the decentralisation of NSFAS. We are also calling for un urgent reviewal of the funding norms and standards for TVET’s because they are the cause of the inadequate funding that students are subjected to.

THANK YOU