NSFAS faces R15 billion shortfall: Implications for South African students

South Africa's Higher Education Minister warns of a R15 billion funding shortfall for the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, raising concerns about the future of free higher education as student numbers continue to rise.

South Africa may have to rethink its approach to free higher education if the government cannot find more money to fund the growing number of students entering universities and TVET colleges.

This is according to Higher Education Minister Buti Manamela , who warned that the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) is facing a funding shortfall of about R15 billion.

Manamela said the shortfall had grown from about R2.5 billion in 2018 to R13.5 billion last year and had now reached about R15 billion because the number of students needing financial support continues to increase while government funding does not grow at the same rate.

"NSFAS has continuously experienced shortfalls, and these shortfalls are essentially as a result of the demand for higher education,". the minister said

"These shortfalls have compounded from just around 2.5 billion rands in 2018, and our current estimate, I think last year was around 13.5 billion; our current estimate is around 15 billion".

The warning comes as NSFAS carries the financial burden of supporting hundreds of thousands of students. For the 2026 academic year, the scheme approved funding for more than 660,000 students.

The scheme has played a major role in helping students from poor and working-class families access higher education by covering tuition fees and providing allowances for other study-related costs.

"We have made a commitment to South Africans that we will provide free higher education, and we have to go and find the money, and if we don't have that money from the national fiscus or from wherever, we need to rethink our approach towards free higher education," Manamela said.

Manamela said government’s funding allocation for NSFAS is largely fixed within the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, while the number of students qualifying for funding continues to grow.

He said this creates a gap between the number of students who need financial support and the money available to the scheme.

“We can control university enrolments, we can control TVET enrolments, but that at the end of the day is essentially almost illegal because our policy is that people who qualify need to be given money, but that money is not available,” he said.

The minister said the issue was being discussed with the Minister of Finance and that government was working on policy proposals to address the growing pressure on student funding.

But while the Higher Education Department is calling for more money to meet the growing demand for student funding, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has previously raised concerns about how NSFAS is spending the money it already receives.