The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) is a South African non-profit organisation that provides funding for students to study.

The NSFAS is a service provided by the Department of Higher Education and Training and was established in 1991. The NSFAS replaced the Tertiary Education Fund of South Africa (TEFSA) in 1999 with the gazetting of the NSFAS Act of 1999.

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) is funded by the Department of Education and Training and aims to provide financial support to eligible students to help pay for the cost of their tertiary education at any TVET college or university.

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The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) is a social programme to enable financially eligible students to obtain tertiary education. Students who meet the income and asset eligibility criteria are automatically funded by NSFAS.

NSFAS will cover the following to students studying at a national university:

• Tuition fees: NSFAS will cover a course from any university, vocational education and training education if students perform academically well and pass all the modules that are within the course material
• Accommodation: NSFAS will only cover residence accommodation and will not cover any form of private accommodation if students exceed the cost of staying in a university residence
• Transport: Funding will only be provided to students travelling up to 40km from a university which typically accumulates to R10 000 a year.
• Students are also allocated a living allowance amounting to R14 400 per annum 
• Students will also receive a book allowance of R5 000 per annum

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NSFAS will cover the following to students studying at a TVET institution:

• Accommodation: Students living in an urban area will receive R24 000 a year, any area between the city centre and the outskirts of a central town will receive a budget of R18 000 per annum and lastly an allowance of R15 000 is allocated for students living in a rural area.
• Transport is only covered for students travelling up to 40km from an institution and the budget amounts to R10 000 per annum.
• In addition, there is a personal care allowance of R2 750 per annum.
• There is also a personal care budget which amounts to R2 850 per annum for students based in catered residences.

Based on the availability of funding each year, NSFAS will only finance students for a maximum of five years. If you wish to continue your studies after five years, you will have to pay for them yourself.