Borrowing from a bank South Africa’s major banks offer specially packaged student loans.
Unlike NSFAS loans, banks are also willing to cover studies at private institutions. Your child will have to enrol at the university of their choice before you apply for the loan, as their registration number is required for the application process.
They will also need their academic results from the previous year. Check with your bank what other FICA and identifying documents you may need.
You will need to sign surety for the loan.
Deadline: There is no specific deadline, but student loans can only be granted in advance of study – so find out when your child’s fees are due and make sure you apply before then.
How to pay it back: While your child is studying, they (or you) will be required to pay back only the interest and service fees on the loan. Once they have graduated, they will be given a grace period on the capital repayment until they have found employment.
Once the monthly repayment has been set, it will not be changed, but the term of repayment may vary with fluctuations in the interest rate. The term can also be reduced by paying back more than the agreed amount.
Crowdfunding your education: To allow individuals and corporates to get involved in helping university students to pay school fees, a number of crowdfunding platforms have been developed.
These allow donors to donate small amounts of money – in some cases as little as R50 or R100 – towards various students’ educations.
The most well-known is of these is Feenix, powered by Standard Bank. Students can create a profile and motivate for funding, and donors can make a selection. Other crowdfunding platforms include Fundafuture and the Black Professionals Scholarship Fund.
Deadline: The deadline differs from fund to fund, and in some cases funding is ongoing. The raised funds are paid over to the university at the end of each funding period (there are two per year) even if the funding target is not reached.
Of course, this means that the student will have to find another way of coming up with any shortfall.
How you pay it back: Generally speaking, these crowdfunding platforms are philanthropic opportunities for donors, and students are not required to pay the loans back.
Be warned! Paying back debt of any kind is hard work – and for a person just starting out in their career, the additional financial burden can weigh heavy. Before you accept a university loan or bursary “at any cost” consider the long-term implications of the debt and be very certain that your child’s career and future will be best served by obtaining the degree of their choice.
Ask yourselves whether they could do just as well by completing a cheaper and shorter course at a TVET college before committing them to paying back a significant amount of money on completion of their studies.
Also, bursaries are hard to come by and recipients are usually required to maintain a certain standard of academic achievement in order to keep the bursary.
Take that first step into the future Tertiary education can broaden your child’s mind, increase their prospects and open many doors. If your child has the opportunity to attend an institution of higher education, there are ways that you can secure the funding to make that happen.
