The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has received just 12 000 loan applications for the 2026 academic from students who do not qualify for bursaries, it emerged on Tuesday. The figure is a fraction of the need estimated by the government when the loan scheme was introduced two years ago.
Loans for the “missing middle” — students who come from households with an annual income above the R350,000 threshold for bursaries but below R600,000 — were introduced by then higher education and training minister Blade Nzimande in January 2024. At the time he said an estimated 68,446 students fell into this category. Loans are available to undergraduate and post-graduate students at universities, and to students at technical and vocational education training (TVET) colleges
“The uptake does seem to be low,” conceded NSFAS acting CEO Waseem Carrim, “I think there is work to be done in marketing the missing middle loan fund,” he said during a media briefing in Pretoria. By contrast, NSFAS had received almost 900,000 applications for bursaries from new and continuing students, he said.
NSFAS did not provide any further details about student loan applications, saying it would do so at a later stage.
NSFAS acting board chair Mugwena Maluleke assured prospective students that the organisation had taken measures to ensure a smooth start to the 2026 academic year, which begins in February.
These include placing NSFAS administrative staff at higher education institutions to assist new and returning students, and a transitional student accommodation framework that aims to ensure all eligible students are allocated beds. NSFAS aimed to ensure all eligible students were provided with accommodation within four to eight hours of arriving on campus, he said.
Accommodation problems have frequently triggered student protests, as NSFAS-funded students have often been left without shelter due to a shortage of suitable beds and failures by NSFAS to pay private providers on time.
“As part of this transition, all accommodation dates — including opening, closing, move-in and move-out periods — will be aligned with the academic calendar to prevent students from being stranded at any point during the academic year,” said Maluleke.
NSFAS said it had processed a record number (893,847) of bursary applications by December 31, of which 609,653 had been approved and 203,731 are pending due to outstanding documentation. Almost 50,000 applications have been rejected. Students have until January 14 to lodge appeals, with outcomes due by February 16.
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