FUNDING AND PAYMENTS UPDATE - PRESENTATION TO THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING
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FUNDING AND PAYMENTS UPDATE
PRESENTATION TO THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING
30th May 2018
1
PCHET Presentation Outline
1 Context
2 2017/2018 Payments
3 2018 Upfront Payments
4 Student Centred Model Roll Out
5 Road to Disbursements
6 Appendices
22017/2018
PAYMENTS
3UPFRONT PAYMENTS
2017/2018 Payments
UNIVERSTITIES
PROVISIONAL ALLOCATION R9,302,663,000
1ST UPFRONT PAYMENT (30%) – APRIL 2017 2,790,799,000
TVETS
PROVISIONAL ALLOCATION R2,437,620,000
1ST UPFRONT PAYMENT (30%) – APRIL 2017 R731,286,000
2ND UPFRONT PAYMENT (15%) – AUGUST 2017 R338,591,932
TOTAL (45%) R1,069,877,932
42018
Upfront Payments
5ROAD TO DISBURSEMENTS
NSFAS Progress on processes leading to disbursements – 28 May 2018
FTENS SENIOR TOTAL
UNIV 209 624 49 950 259 574
TVET 154 639 3 071 157 710
TOTAL 364 263 53 021 417 284
APPLICATIONS SUMMARY UNIVERSITY TVETS
TOTAL APPLICATIONS RECEIVED 259 574 157 710
REJECTIONS; MISSING INFORMATION & PENDING REJECTIONS
REJECTED, WITHDRAWN 13 606 1 397
PENDING REJECTIONS (INCOME INELIGIBILITY) 21 706 3 204
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS (PARENTS
12 558 5 970
CONSENT, APPLICANT ID, ETC)
TOTAL 47 870 10 571
MEET NSFAS FUNDING CRITERIA 211 704 147 139
FUNDING & CONTRACTING
BURSARY - REGISTRATION MATCH 81 402 69 264
*CONTRACTS (NBA) GENERATED 64 486 47 903
*CONTRACTS SIGNED 45 338 15 348
6UPFRONT PAYMENTS
2018 Disbursement of Upfront Payments
Universities and TVET’s view of three upfront payments made in 2018 – This enabled institutions to receive funding which NBA was being formalized
UNIVERSTITIES
PROVISIONAL ALLOCATION 16,426,000,000
1ST UPFRONT PAYMENT (9%) – 26/01 1,547,991,750
2ND UPFRONT PAYMENT (7%) – 20/03 1,080,168,250
3 RD U P F R O N T P A Y M E N T ( 1 4 % ) – 0 2 / 0 4 2,299,640,000
TOTAL (30%) 4,927,800,000
TVETS
PROVISIONAL ALLOCATION 5,164,002,000
1ST UPFRONT PAYMENT (7%) – 26/01 386,850,300
2ND UPFRONT PAYMENT (11%) – 20/03 542,670,060
3RD UPFRONT PAYMENT (12%) – 02 /04 619,680,240
TOTAL (30%) 1,549,200,600
NB. Options presented for 4th Advance remittance payment (Payment to be made as long as costs per student are provided by institution or
provisionally funded student list to be used to calculate 40% to institutions 7UPFRONT PAYMENTS
2018 Disbursement of Upfront Payments – Issues and Actions
Universities and TVET’s issues experienced and mitigating actions
ISSUES
STUDENTS ALLOWANCES – Whilst a portion of upfronts is paid towards student fees, another fraction was allocated towards
allowances for funded students. However, some institutions may have not allocated allowances into students accounts and this
may relate funding decisions communication misalignment between NSFAS and institutions
sBux – NSFAS disburses directly to 18 institutions and has paid upfront allowances to institutions and students. To this end,
NSFAS paid monies in relation to student who applied to NSFAS directly and whose admission / registration information has been
confirmed by the institutions
Data Exchange which includes admission, academic and registration data has been the major hurdle in the disbursement
processes together with the recreation of a new bursary agreement. To this end, we cannot confirm who exactly has received
allowances and who hasn't
NB. Options presented for 4th Advance remittance payment (Payment to be made as long as costs per student are provided by institution or
provisionally funded student list to be used to calculate 40% to institutions) 8UPFRONT PAYMENTS
2018 Disbursement of Upfront Payments – Issues and Actions
Universities and TVET’s issues experienced and mitigating actions
ACTIONS
CIRCULAR 19 – NSFAS has issued out Circular 19 requesting institutions to submit detailed allocation of allowances into students’
accounts.
RECONCILLIATION – NSFAS requires institutions to submit remittances indicating how upfront payments was allocated into student
accounts. This information is required to reconcile NSFAS internal systems before automated disbursements starts;
• 4th Upfront Payment to both Institutions and sBux linked organisations - NSFAS has made fourth upfront available to institutions on
request. Institutions are required to submit remittance to NSFAS to unlock the upfront– 50% of the provisional allocation;
• Data Exchange - DHET Development Support and NSFAS Servicing teams are working with institutions to encourage data exchange
which will inform funding decisions, movement of funds
NB. Options presented for 4th Advance remittance payment (Payment to be made as long as costs per student are provided by institution or
provisionally funded student list to be used to calculate 40% to institutions) 9UPFRONT PAYMENTS
2018 Disbursement of Upfront Payments - sBux
Universities and TVET’s view of sBux upfront payments made in 2018
PROGRESS
The following upfronts were made to sBux institutions (TVETs and Universities)
“ftens” # students RAND VALUE
UNIVERSITY 34 893 98 687 592
TVETS 16 237 15 314 698
“RETURNING” # students RAND VALUE
UNIVERSITY 27 411 124 126 522
TVETS 2 796 3 361 324
10UPFRONT PAYMENTS
2018 Disbursement of Upfront Payments - sBux
Universities and TVET’s view of sBux upfront payments made in 2018
ISSUES
This is to ensure that students receive the correct amounts in lieu of the recently instituted notional allowances.
Our systems are under pressure
Manual process impacting speed of disbursement ;
ACTIONS
NSFAS is transitioning into the automated sBux disbursement process for FTENs and Senior students that
have signed contracts and Returning students from whom registration has been confirmed. This will mitigate the
identified issues;
11Student Centred
Model Roll Out
12NSFAS Student Centered Model Roll Out
Challenges
Key bottlenecks in NSFAS process relate to case management (checks on
documents submitted by students), registration handler (processing of registration
data, linking to provisionally funded lists) and bursary creation (In phoenix).
Capacity and processing capability of NSFAS ICT systems.
Due to sBux payments being made outside the systems, reconciling these back into the
system is a challenge. Only once this process is complete, then funds can be
disbursed (To avoid overpayment risk).
Major dependency on students to sign SOPs, which emphasises that the SOP needs to
reach the students as soon as possible in
order to increase the chances of the SOP being accepted by the student
13NSFAS Student Centered Model Roll Out (Continued)
Challenges
Although NSFAS progressively paid institutions upfront payments in excess of
R6 billion to date, data exchange challenges prevented the generation of SOPs
and institutions could not be provided with payment remittances by NSFAS.
One consolidated view of data was required – Registration Data, data
exchange, eligibility assessments, NBA generation, payment and remittances,
2017 Close out..
Major dependency on students to sign SOPs, which emphasises that the SOP
needs to reach the students as soon as possible in
order to increase the chances of the SOP being accepted by the student
14NSFAS Student Centered Model Roll Out (Continued)
The way forward
Option for manual NBA claim process considered but not likely as 50% NBA’s already generated
TVET Task team has amended original template for data collection to align with NSFAS
data requirements and ensure correct portal uploads. Amended template referred to as
registration declaration (Requiring sign off by TVET CFO and Principal to verify validity of
data submitted)
Circular 17 addressed data exchange for 2017 close out and 2018 registrations. Credit
committee to approve ineligible rejection messages for those above income threshold.
15NSFAS Student Centered Model Roll Out
The way forward
Registration data categorised per FTEN’s, Seniors and returning. Proposed
improvement – no more means test during evaluation phase (On-board)
Follow up with institutions regarding missing academic results. Finalize funding
decisions (Credit committee to meet regarding this). Resolve outstanding data
exchange issues (plans in place to achieve this). Disbursement can only
conclude end July 2018 due to process and system limitations
Institutions to implement measures to ensure that students accept the
NBA’s/SOP’s (Refuse payment of allowances without NBA’s/SOPs being signed,
refuse re-registration in Semester/Trimester 2, non-admission to
Tests/Examinations)
Payment reconciliation programme to be formalized to address upfront and sBux
payments made and the recon of these payments
16Key Work in
TASK TEAM SUMMARIES Key Progress Progress
At Risk
NSFAS Progress on Task Team requirements
The following is a view on the progress made on the original ask from the DHET Task team:
Task Team Intervention
Student funds disbursed successfully Integration of registration & Funding Data
Students immediately receive confirmation of Bursary agreements can be generated and
their funding signed as a matter of urgency
Task Team Ask
& NSFAS
Response
RAG Status
17Road to
Disbursements
182018 Applications – Matters being dealt with… 2016/2017 – To finalize the signing of LAFSOP’s and disbursing to institutions, we are continuously communicating with institutions and students with regards unsigned LAFSOP’s. We have set a deadline of 30th May 2018 for finalizing this process. There are data issues that are being attended to as part of action plans. CAT 2 APPLICATION PROCESSING - Real time validation and evaluation is being conducted. Rejections are being reviewed through the credit committee process. This will trigger the appeals process which will then be dealt with accordingly (Deadline 30th Jun for rejections and 31st Jul for appeals). CONTINUING STUDENTS - Generating loan accounts and disbursement accounts for returning students that have been successfully migrated, funded and for whom registration has been received (30th May deadline to complete). DISBURSEMENTS - NSFAS is ready to kick start the automated disbursement process. Finalizing remittance reports to institutions (Deadline is 31st May). 4TH upfront payment available to institution on condition that they share data on who was paid at the back of the first set of upfront payments. Disbursement via sBux continue as and when data matching takes place COMMUNICATION - We are in the process of communicating to students that are provisionally funded to inform them of the availability of the contract (Ongoing). We are responding to student queries via the contact centre and we are engaging our stakeholders via social media and guiding the contracting process by engaging with key role players. Engagement with DHET to assist in aligning institutions and NSFAS to ensure that NSFAS can contract with students and disburse to them (Deadline 31st May) NSFAS BURSARY AGREEMENT – We are generating NSFAS Bursary Agreements (NBA) for FTEN’s and senior students. This will enable appropriate disbursements to students. We have set a signing deadline of 31st July for all NBA’s that are issued. after 31 July deadline, students with non-signed NBAs will be unfunded. Onboarding Standard Bank as a disbursement partner to pick up the load going into 2019. with this intervention we are leveraging the robust South African Financial Services Systems 19
THANK YOU
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