Johannesburg - Universities in South Africa are finalising first-year applications, as on January 16 the quality assurance body Umalusi approved the results of the school-leaving examinations written at the end of 2022.
The results have been electronically and confidentially released to higher education institutions to move the process forward quickly, as the official announcement by Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga is scheduled for January 19.
The individual results of the Class of 2022 – the largest cohort of matric pupils to date in South Africa – will be released at examination centres on Friday, January 20. Umalusi said that, although there had been incidents of cheating, its evaluation had found no systemic irregularities that would compromise the credibility or integrity of the examination results.
Umalusi chairperson Professor Yunus Ballim announced that the National Senior Certificate examinations administered by the SA Comprehensive Assessment Institute, the Independent Examinations Board, and the SA Department of Basic Education had met the Umalusi evaluation criteria.
Umalusi sets and monitors standards for general and further education and training in South Africa in accordance with the National Qualifications Framework Act No 67 of 2008 and the General and Further Education and Training Quality Assurance Act No 58 of 2001.
Rush for university places
The size of the cohort – 921 879 pupils, made up of 753 964 full-time and 167 915 part-time candidates – is expected to increase pressure for places at universities and technical and vocational education and training colleges, as well as push up demand for student financial aid for tertiary studies.
In November 2022, the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, the financial support scheme for tertiary students in South Africa, said it forecast a 7% increase in bursary applications for 2023. However, NSFAS also said it expected a funding shortfall of R1.5 billion.
In a presentation to the National Assembly’s portfolio committee on higher education, science and innovation, NSFAS said it had budgeted R40 billion for 559 226 students at a cost of R69 987 per student in the new year. Of these, 394 115 will be applications from continuing students and 165 111 from new applicants, including 156 080 new first-time students and 9 031 senior students.
Regarding TVETs, the fund expects 337 224 students to apply for bursaries in 2023, costing R8.8 billion, with a R1.9 billion shortfall. The fund expects to provide bursaries for 250 000 students at 50 TVETs and 26 universities, with about 550 000 beneficiaries at 26 public universities.
NSFAS will make direct payments of allowances into student bank accounts via four Fintech companies engaged to assist with the disbursement of funds.
For the university sector, three institutions –Unisa, the University of Fort Hare, and the University of Limpopo – were approached by NSFAS for them to run a pilot scheme to test the system. However, NSFAS said the current challenges, relating to the existing methods, required mainly the use of beneficiaries’ personal information and contact details to function.
Beneficiaries were subsequently targeted because of unlawful means being available to obtain such information. Thus, problems became prevalent, such as persons obtaining unauthorised access to beneficiary allowances. Fraudsters solicited beneficiary information through social engineering, fraudulent websites, and social media pages. Insufficient cyber security had been in place, resulting in beneficiary data being exposed and allowances stolen.
To streamline the process of allowance payments, the scheme sought a secure solution to ensure that all NSFAS beneficiaries received their allowances directly from NSFAS, ensuring they were paid on time. The process is in place and will commence soon.
Student unrest
Professor Marianna Phutsisi, the president of the SA Public Colleges Organisation, said it was concerned that NSFAS still had no plan to pay a project management fee to colleges to administer student allowances. This could result in student unrest.
Student protests at the start of the academic year have become a feature of the South African tertiary education landscape, often because of a lack of financial aid for poor students. The South African Union of Students said student representative councils had raised concerns about NSFAS preparations for the 2023 academic year.
These included delays in putting systems in place to implement changes in the NSFAS process, as well as the timely release of student allowances. This information was first published on the Africa page of the University World News website.