Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Nomusa Dube-Ncube, highlighted ongoing challenges in admitting more matriculants to higher learning institutions despite rising pass rates. Speaking in Cape Town, she discussed departmental efforts to streamline processes amid limited resources. Improvements to the NSFAS application system aim to ease access for students nationwide.
At a three-day Post School Education and Training Strategic Planning session in Cape Town, Deputy Minister Dr Nomusa Dube-Ncube addressed the pressures on South Africa's higher education system. With increasing numbers of matriculants achieving passes, admissions to universities and colleges remain strained, even as institutions prepare to open for the 2026 academic year.
Dube-Ncube emphasized collaborative planning to improve coordination. "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?" she said on the sidelines of the event.
The department has focused on enhancing access to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS). Last year, NSFAS reported to Parliament on its operations and challenges. For this year, NSFAS has deployed staff across all provinces to handle queries on applications, accommodation, and academics locally, reducing the need for students to contact Cape Town directly.
"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," Dube-Ncube explained.
These measures come as NSFAS completes funding decisions for 2026, aiming to support more students despite fiscal constraints.