The dropout of students funded by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) is a
perennial problem in many higher education institutions (HEIs) in South Africa. Despite this, little
research has been conducted to investigate this phenomenon, and this study sought to address
this gap by investigating the dropout of NSFAS-funded students from HEIs in Northern Gauteng.
The study adopted a qualitative methodology and a phenomenological design to explore the lived
experiences of students who dropped out of HEIs. Thirty-one NSFAS-funded students, three
senior management officials from three HEIs and one NSFAS senior official were purposively
selected to form part of the study. Semi-structured interviews, document analysis and
observations were utilised as reseach instruments and interpretative phenomenological analysis
(IPA) was employed to analyse data.
The findings of the study established that a lack of support for students, and personal,
socioeconomic, institutional and health factors contributed to the dropout of students from HEIs.
It was further established that the majority of students who dropped out did so because of the
inefficient operations of NSFAS and the new student-centred model. The study also found that
insufficient funding, late allocation of funds, stringent NSFAS requirements, lack of
communication, late payment or nonpayment of allowances contributed to students’ dropout. To
address these shortfalls, the study recommends that the student-centred model should be
overhauled and replaced with an integrated system including departments such as DOH, SARS,
DSD and DOL to identify students who are eligible for funding and assist in the efficient
administration of NSFAS. It is further recommended that funding administered by both the national
and provincial government departments be centralized and administred by the NSFAS to
circumvent double dipping. Finally, it is recommended that students who fall within the R0 – R350,000 per annum household income category including SASSA beneficiaries be flagged by
the system to automatically qualify for funding. / Educational Management and Leadership / D. Ed. (Education Management)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/26730 |
| Date | 23 October 2020 |
| Creators | Mabuza, Nonhlanhla Herieglietias |
| Contributors | Lekhetho, Mapheleba |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (xiv, 215 leaves) : color illustrations, color graphs, application/pdf |
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