Student financial aid scheme NSFAS says free funding for higher education will only be given to first-time undergraduate students.
NSFAS CEO Steven Zwane says they have received around 300 000 applications for funding for the 2018 academic year.
President Jacob Zuma announced free higher education for students from the poor and working class last month.
Zwane says qualifying students have to meet certain criteria.
“Universities and TVETs have done the pre-screening, for example, do they meet the R350 000 threshold we’ve set up. Are they on Sassa grants, if they are then the information gets shared with us and also we are looking forward to evaluating the applications coming from the central clearing house. Those are the students that may not have applied to institutions and did not apply to NSFAS, but an opportunity is there for them.”
