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[File Image]: Students at Walter Sisulu University (WSU) outside the campus.
Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Nomusa Dube-Ncube, says with more matriculants passing, admissions to institutions of higher learning remain a problem.
Speaking at a three-day Post School Education and Training Strategic Planning session in Cape Town, she outlined what the department is doing to try to make this process smoother for prospective students.
Speaking on the sidelines of the session, she says the department has done everything in its power to prepare for this year.
“To plan together to say, ‘How can we do things better? How do we coordinate ourselves?’ We know that within the sector there are a lot of pressures; we have matriculants who have passed, and the matriculants are passing more and more, and there is a lot of pressure in the system, and how do we make sure that within the limited fiscus that we have, we also still try and make sure that we get as many matriculants as possible in the system?”
Dube-Ncube says the department has made an effort to make access to the NSFAS a smoother process.
Last year, NSFAS appeared before Parliament on a number of occasions to give an update on its operations and challenges it faces.
With universities and colleges opening soon for the new academic year, Dube-Ncube says this new process should be easier for students.
“NSFAS has put people in all the provinces. Once we’ve got people that will be dealing with accommodation in all the provinces, we have people that will also be dealing with academics, people who directly will be responsible for questions when students have got questions about their applications and all of those things, so in all provinces, for the first time, students don’t need to be sending questions to Cape Town or calling Cape Town,” says Dube-Ncube.
NSFAS briefs media on preparations for the 2026 academic year:
