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FUNDING CLIFF: Postgraduate funding crisis prompts launch of new bursary toolkit
🇿🇦 South Africa /Economy & Trade

FUNDING CLIFF: Postgraduate funding crisis prompts launch of new bursary toolkit

From Daily Maverick · () English

Summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

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  • South African postgraduate students face a funding gap as the National Research Foundation’s budget remains far below undergraduate support through NSFAS.
  • Speakers at the launch of a new bursary toolkit called the disparity a national crisis and warned that financial pressure contributes to debt and doctoral attrition.
  • The toolkit offers funders guidance and templates for combining financial aid with mentoring, psychosocial support and other services.

South Africa’s postgraduate students are confronting a funding cliff. While the National Student Financial Aid Scheme receives more than R50 billion a year for undergraduates, the National Research Foundation allocated only R1 billion to postgraduate funding in 2024, according to Professor Lynn Morris of the University of the Witwatersrand.

Morris said the NRF budget had roughly halved since 2017. Students who receive full NSFAS support as undergraduates often find no comparable assistance when they continue into postgraduate study. About 80% of Wits student debt is in the postgraduate space, she said, because students carry undergraduate debt into their later enrolment.

national crisis

— Launch participantsThe postgraduate funding disparity was described this way at the bursary toolkit launch.

She also reported that about a quarter of Wits PhD students never complete their degrees. The Presidential PhD Programme, announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2023, illustrated the gap between ambition and available resources. Only five programmes had been approved nationally, Morris said, at funding levels about ten times lower than originally envisioned.

There’s a real stark difference between what the government invests in undergraduate versus what they invest in postgraduate

— Lynn MorrisThe Wits deputy vice-chancellor compared government support for undergraduate and postgraduate students.

The figures were discussed at a 20 August webinar hosted by the Independent Philanthropy Association of South Africa. The event launched a bursary toolkit, knowledge brief, roadmap and templates intended to help philanthropic funders build more effective higher-education programmes.

Ipasa programme manager Louise Sturrock said the resources followed months of consultation because “many are navigating this landscape without a shared body of knowledge”. She said thousands of capable students were “held back every year, often by financial constraints alone”.

many are navigating this landscape without a shared body of knowledge

— Louise SturrockThe Ipasa programme manager explained why the new funding resources were developed.

Wits has responded with a Doctoral Academy, the online GOLD skills platform, a Postgraduate Hub, a Graduate Research Management System and a dedicated funding portal. Panellists also argued that bursaries must offer more than fee payments. Chantelle Oosthuizen of the Cyril Ramaphosa Education Trust said her organisation added psychosocial support, mentoring and a compulsory driver’s licence programme after finding that graduates without licences struggled to secure work. Leandi Sadie of the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation also took part in the discussion.

A bursary cannot simply be about paying fees

— Chantelle OosthuizenThe Cyril Ramaphosa Education Trust executive director argued that students need broader support.
About this summary

Originally published by Daily Maverick. Summarized and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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