With the start of matriculation preliminary exams, parents are feeling the pressure to help secure university placements and financial aid for their children. South African public universities saw over 1.2 million students enrolled in 2023, which means admission was highly competitive.
According to the Department of Higher Education and Training, the volume of full-time university students grew by 2.5% annually from 2010 to 2021, outpacing the growth in academic staff.
Student loan applications have surged, with Standard Bank seeing a 10% increase in new disbursements since 2023. “This rise may be due to the increased difficulty of self-funding amid high unemployment and living costs, prompting more students to seek alternative funding”, says Tshiamo Molanda, Head of Youth and Mass Market Clients at Standard Bank.
Loan applications have surged back to pre-pandemic levels, and approved loan amounts have grown in response to tuition fee increases, which have averaged 10% per year over the past three years. Loan applications typically peak from January to March and again from June to August, with the latter period often driven by demand from students seeking additional funding. The increasing cost of education can hinder the dreams of many young South Africans, particularly those from middle-income families who may have limited financial resources.
At Standard Bank we recognise these challenges, so to help students overcome them we offer affordable student loans, including options that don’t require a surety, to help students achieve their educational aspirations. “We understand that finding a surety or qualifying for a loan on your own can be challenging. To address this, we offer eligible students loans that do not require surety for certain courses at our partner institutions nationwide”, says Molanda.
Degrees in health sciences, including Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery, as well as Economics and Management qualifications, are the most popular among these students. Molanda adds, “We’ve seen an increase in requests for postgraduate degrees in recent months too”.
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