Poorer students hit by cap on rental allowance

THE National Student Financial Aid Scheme’s (NSFAS) new policy to cap student accommodation allowance at R45 000 is hurting poor students on the University of Pretoria’s geo-economical location.

This frustration was expressed by the University of Pretoria SRC after engaging students who found themselves struggling to find accommodation because they could not afford to top up their monthly rent.

Seeking to make student funding more easily accessible to qualifying applicants, NSFAS proposed a series of policy changes, which included the accommodation allowance cap, to be applicable to university accommodation or accredited private accommodation.

It also planned to enter lease negotiations on behalf of students, accredited student housing, without involving universities as was customary, and pay landlords directly.

The bursary scheme has also introduced a NSFAS bank card through which students would receive their monthly allowances.

This meant that once signed in, accommodation providers would be able to list their properties by providing their property names, location and images.

NSFAS would then contact them and send a panel of experts to accredit and grade the properties to ensure that they were suitable for student living.

An annual allowance of R24 000 would be given to students who lived in urban housing.

The annual housing allowance for students living in peri-urban regions was R18 900, whereas the annual housing allowance for students living in rural areas was R15 750.

SRC deputy president and secretary, Neville Mupita and Phenyo Matabane, said the student council met representatives from TukRes and the financial aid office to determine the university’s stance and approach to the matter, and they were informed that an appeal letter had been sent from NSFAS requesting an exemption from the cap due to the geo-economical location of the institution.

Spokesperson for the university, Rikus Delport, told The Star’s sister paper, Pretoria News that the university was in regular contact with NSFAS over accommodation fees in an effort to reconsider the capping of off-campus accredited accommodation.

“The university can accommodate approximately 8 000 students in our own accommodation, with more than 10 000 beds available in accredited accommodation.

“We have received approximately 20 000 applications.

“The university is committed to work with all parties involved to find workable solutions.”

The student council said it visited various service providers outside the institution, hoping to get an understanding which would assist students to afford accommodation, but it felt it was dealing with “egotistical personnel with capitalistic agendas”.

Mupita said one accommodation service provider made it very clear that they were not willing to accommodate NSFAS students who had proven that they were financially incapable of topping up approximately R2 000 for their cheapest rooms.

Other groups, which owned numerous accredited private accommodations, said they would rather lock their doors than drop their prices to accommodate the destitute students.

Another group stipulated that it had already attempted to meet the NSFAS students halfway by dropping its rental prices by R99 from R6 199 to R6 100 but was unwilling to drop any further.

Some property groups, in spite of countless efforts to arrange a meeting, were not willing to meet the student council.